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RELIGIOUS LIFE EST ENGLAND. 



LONDON : 

ROBSON AND SON, GREAT NORTHERN PRINTING WORKS, 

PANCRAS ROAD, N.W. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND 



BY 



ALPHONSE'ESQUIROS, 

AUTHOR OF 
THE ENGLISH AT HOME," " THE DUTCH AT HOME," ETC. 




/ LONDON: V 

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 

1867. 



A 



PBEFACE. 



If I had followed the advice of the ancients, ab Jove 
principium, the study of Religious Life would have 
been the first of my essays on England. But va- 
rious causes have prevented this being the case. I 
will only mention one : the difficulty of this subject 
for a foreigner. Still, I was very far from failing 
to recognise the influence which the faith of a 
people must exercise on their manners, character, 
and institutions. It may be surmised beforehand, 
it is from this point of view alone, and not theo- 
logically, that I have taken my stand as an observer. 
In the principles of the religious Reformation, as 
proclaimed in the sixteenth century, and still re- 
freshed day by day at the well-spring of free inquiry, 
are to be found, as I think, the germs of the real 
Constitution of England. 

One fact is calculated to strike me. Both in the 
Old and New World representative government has 



PEEFACE. 



been established — in different grades, it is true — 
without effort, and as if naturally, in almost all 
those states which belong to the Reformed Churches ; 
whilst up to the present time nothing of the same 
kind is to be seen in Catholic nations. Those among 
the latter who have attained to the enjoyment of 
constitutional government have only achieved it by 
severing themselves more or less from their religious 
traditions. The contest has been a sharp and dis- 
tressing one, and is still going on. The political 
conquests in these states rest only on a compromise 
between faith and reason. A religious order, still 
exercising a certain sway over the conscience, con- 
stantly seeks either to recall or maintain some obso- 
lete class in the state, incompetent for the future to 
rule over the minds of men. Hence the source of 
the evil ; hence the cause of the antagonistic wrenches 
by which countries are constantly rent asunder, in 
the name either of progress or of reaction. Abso- 
lutism in matters of faith opposes an eternal obstacle 
to the freedom of opinions. 

England, above all other nations of Europe, has 
had the unusual good fortune of long back attaching 
herself to a form of religious doctrines which was 
not at variance with her social institutions. This 
is, in my idea, the source of her great prosperity. 



PREFACE. 



Of all the Christian systems, Protestantism is the 
one which is best suited to constitutional govern- 
ment. On the one hand, it possesses enough of the 
principle of authority to shed its hallowing influence 
over the monarchy ; and on the other, it leaves 
sufficient room for the liberty of thought, so as to 
admit the right of discussion, the principle of inde- 
pendent enterprise, and the intervention of the 
country generally in the affairs of state. 

As every nation is to some extent restricted by 
its history, its traditions, and its peculiar genius, it 
has a good right to have an ideal of its own. Thus 
it has in no way entered into my thoughts to pro- 
pose for France that type of religious or political 
institutions which Great Britain has thought proper 
to choose for herself. But I can fearlessly recom- 
mend the wise example which the English have pre- 
sented to the world at large in tlirowing aside before- 
hand, as regards questions of faith, all those obstacles 
which in material affairs might oppose the develop- 
ment of liberty. 

Whilst this book was being written, some grave 
dissensions have lately broken out amongst the 
ministers of the Church of England. It is not, on 
any account, expedient for us to enter into this 
sacred arena, or to mix ourselves up with the 



PREFACE. 



learned combatants. But perhaps a foreigner may 
be permitted to offer to both sides a few words of 
sincere and disinterested advice. If England is 
tired of her political liberties, if she recoils affrighted 
from the requirements of modern intellect, simple 
means are at her disposal to cut the matter short : 
let her go back to the bygone rites and bygone 
dogmas which she threw off three centuries ago. 
In them only, will she find an anchor against the 
waves of progress. If, on the contrary, she has 
faith in herself and her future; if she wishes to 
preserve intact that spirit of free inquiry, and of 
free individual action, which has been her source 
of strength in manufactures, science, and political 
economy; if the contest with the opinions of the 
age does not intimidate her, — she will take good 
care not to retrace her steps towards an obsolete 
system of religion, which, in spite of the disguise 
under which they seek to cloak it, is, after all, but 
the spirit of moral servitude. 

ALPHONSE ESQUISOS. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Religious life in the country — An English parish — The differ- 
ence between an English and a French village — The par- 
sonage — Why the clergyman's residence is sometimes in 
a state of dilapidation — What is a living? — Origin of 
the right of patronage — How it happens that the advow- 
son, or right of presentation, is a saleable property, and 
purchaseable by auction — Who exercises this right? — 
How does a man become a clergyman? — The Curate's 
life — Whom does he marry ? — Are the English Clergy paid 
by the State ? — When and how the tithes were commuted 
— Various sources of income — Poor livings — Sydney Smith 
— The Clergyman's wife — Various plans for bettering the 
condition of country Incumbents — Difference between the 
Rector and the Vicar — Influence of Curates on the agri- 
cultural classes — Relations between the Incumbent and 
the Bishop — Parochial duties of the Clergyman — Life 
in a parsonage i 

CHAPTER II. 

The Church — The Sunday services — System of seats — Why 
there is no Altar in Protestant churches — Morning ser- 
vice — Why the English can call themselves Catholics — 
The Funeral Service — " Harvest-Home" — Church-rates 
and Vestry Meetings — The parish officers — Church- 
wardens — Village clubs — The Incumbent who is liked by 
the parishioners, and the Incumbent who is not liked — 
Charities and parochial visiting 41 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

PAGE 

The schools — Infant school — National school and Sunday- 
school — Andrew Bell — Joseph Lancaster — The system of 
mutual instruction — The National Society — The British 
and Foreign Schools Society — Reasons for the antagonism 
of these two institutions — The Revised Code — Objections 
to which it has given rise — Causes for the complaints 
and grievances of the Clergy — General views of the Go- 
vernment — Who nominates the Schoolmaster ? — Progress 
of education in England since the commencement of the 
Nineteenth Century— Bond of union between the Church 
and the school 67 



CHAPTER IV. 

Religious life in towns — Lambeth Palace — The Chapel, the 
Great Hall, and the Guard Room — The prison in the 
Lollards' Tower — Dungeon of detention — Organisation of 
the Church of England — The two Primates — The Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury — Annual visit of the Stationers' 
Company to Lambeth Palace — The archiepiscopal city of 
Canterbury — The "Tabard" Inn — Chaucer and Shake- 
speare — Palace Street — St. Martin's Church — Origin of 
Christianity in England — St. Augustine, first Archbishop 
of Canterbury — External appearance of the cathedral 
and cloisters — Sunday service in a Protestant temple — 
Thomas a Becket — Nature of a cathedral chapter — Or- 
ganisation of deans and canons — The chapter of Canter- 
bury 93 

CHAPTER V. 

Convocation ; its origin, and what it has become in course of 
time — Way of convoking and assembling this ecclesi- 
astical assembly — Proctors — Act of Subscription — The 
Church Congress — Brother Ignatius — High Church and 
Low Church — Electoral reform in the Clerical Parlia- 
ment — The Tractarians — Latitudinarians — The Broad 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Church — Dr. Arnold — Arguments in favour of a free 
interpretation of the Bible — Essays and Reviews — Dr. 
Maurice and Byron's Giaour — Eternity of punishment 
rejected as an impious doctrine — Influence of Clergy in 
the State — What are their political opinions ? — The Libe- 
ration Society — Ragged churches — Why the working 
classes will not go to the Established churches . . .130 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Dissenting denominations— Their origin and cause — The 
Independents — Religious persecutions — Heretics judged 
and condemned by heretics— Chief tenets of the Congre- 
gationalists — One of their chapels — The Baptists — Mr. 
Spurgeon and his Tabernacle — Baptism of adults — The 
Society of Friends, or Quakers — Simplicity of their wor- 
ship — Character of Quakers — Quakerism is decreasing, 
and why? — Methodists — John Wesley — Class meetings — 
Itinerant preachers — Ministry of women — The New Church 
— Swedenborg — How his doctrines came to be introduced 
into England — Unitarians — Their way of looking at Chris- 
tianity — Open-air preachers — The prophetess interrupted 
by a donkey — Respect paid to liberty of speech — The 
Evangelical Alliance — One of the glories of Protestantism 158 

CHAPTER VII. 

Those who go to Church and those who go out of Town 
— Nature's festivals — The Crystal Palace — Why we call 
it a temple — How it originated — Has it answered the end 
for which it was built ? — The amusements which frustrate 
the good intentions of its founders — Services which it 
might render to the education of the people . . .190 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Geology the preface of history — The Island of Monsters — 
Races of men and their climates — Pythagoras' dream 
realised in the Crystal Palace — India badly represented — 
Ancient Egypt and its principal historical characteristics 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

— A temple the production of imagination — Symbolical . 
architecture — Where is the mind of a people to be sought 
for? — Causes of the decay of primitive civilisations — 
The Assyrian Court — The Priest-Kings — Sensations on 
passing from the monuments of primitive Eastern com- 
munities to ancient Greece — Arrival in the modem world 
— A Eoman dwelling-house — The Alhambra — The dogma 
of Fatalism connects the Moors with the other quiescent 
communities 207 

CHAPTER IX. 

Infancy of modern civilisations — Primitive forms of Chris- 
tian art — The Byzantine period — The Middle Ages — 
Memorials of Catholic England — The Eenaissance — Its 
characteristics in England — The Elizabethan style — 
Connection between tbe Eenaissance and the Reforma- 
tion — Services rendered by Henry VIII. to England in 
separating it from Eome — Why has Cromwell no statue 
in the Crystal Palace? — History of Manufacture poorly 
shown at the Crystal Palace — Alliance of the Useful and 
Fine Arts — The love of utility distinguishes modern com- 
munities — Conclusions to be drawn from the ensemble 
of this Temple of History — New system of education — To 
communicate ideas by means of external forms — The 
Crystal Palace a school of democracy . . . .238 

CHAPTEE X. 

Eeligious life in foreign missions — Ubiquity of England — 
Her moral conquests in the regions not under her sway 
— The Bible Society — Stereo-typography — The confusion 
of tongues — Difficulties met with in translating the 
Bible into the ancient Eastern dialects — William Wilber- 
force — Colporteurs — The Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts — The Church Missionary 
Society — The Baptist Missionary Society — Museum of 
the London Missionary Society — A god eaten by rats — A 
new idol, manufactured by Christians — The Wesleyan 
Missionary Society 260 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE 

The John Williams — The Duff— History of the South-Sea 
missions — John Williams the missionary — His Messen- 
ger of Peace — Cannibal tribes — W. Ellis — Man-eating 
gods, even where their worshippers have ceased to eat 
one another — The savage's idea as to the religion of the 
English — Polynesian legends — It is easier to change the 
gods of a nation than the heart of man — Native agents 
— Story of Elekana — The missionaries teach the savages 
the use of the alphabet — How can a written message 
speak when it has no mouth ? — Introduction of domestic 
animals — A pair of shoes stolen by rats — An English- 
woman weeping because she had ceased to like beef — The 
savages' wives in bonnets and crinoline — The proselytism 
of fashions — Alteration in manners — Missionary life — 
Their houses — Their wives — Hurricanes — Man-stealers . 281 

CHAPTER XII. 

A female missionary enthusiast — William Moister — Sally 
the African nursemaid — Departure for Africa — General 
appearance of the coast — The dead man's house — Journey 
through the desert — Waggons drawn by oxen — Travel- 
ling incidents and impressions — A black sovereign — Re- 
sults of his sneeze — Have Englishwomen any finger-nails ? 
— Local fevers — Want of water — Opinions of the Negroes 
as to Christianity — Robert Moffat — Slavery and the slave- 
trade — A few words from Livingstone — Landing of a 
cargo of slaves rescued by English sailors — Opinions of 
the missionaries as to Negroes — The Madagascar mission 
— Itsmartj'rs — Ranavahona the bloodthirsty — Radamall. 
and. the Rev. W. Ellis — Why the present Queen of Mada- 
gascar defends and preserves her idols . . . .309 

CHAPTER XIII. 

China opened to the English missionaries — How little we 
must believe in the intolerance of the Chinese — A 
mandarin's eulogium on the Gospel — Have the Chinese 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

any religion ? — The small value they set upon their gods . 
— Why they will not change them — Material prosperity 
of idolatry — Has it, on this account, more enduring 
vitality ? — Plan of action necessary to convince the Chi- 
nese — Why they preserve their religion without believing 
it — Effects of the appearance of Christianity in India 
— Colenso and the Hindoo controversialists — Decline of 
idolatry — A god at the bottom of a well — Influence of 
education on the decline of the national religion — Asso- 
ciations of free-thinkers — Various prophecies announce 
a change of religion — Obstacles to the spread of Chris- 
tianity — The system of caste — Answers of the Hindoos 
to the Christian missionaries— Hindoo plans to appease 
a restless soul — Itinerant missionaries — Women of India, 
and their so-called seclusion — Mrs. Cooper — Stationary 
missionaries — Mr. Joseph Higgins — A merry Christmas in 
the Bud wail Valley — New system of universal writing — 
Services to civilisation rendered by missionaries . .33° 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX EXGLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

Religious life in the country — An English parish — The difference 
between an English and a French village — The parsonage — 
"Why the Clergyman's residence is sometimes in a state of 
dilapidation — What is a living \ — Origin of the right of 
patronage — How it happens that the advowson, or right of 
presentation, is a saleable property, and purchaseable by auc- 
tion — Who exercises this right? — How does a man become 
a Clergyman ? — The Curate's life — Whom does he marry 1 — 
Are the English Clergy paid by the State ? — When and how 
the tithes were commuted — Various sources of income — Poor 
livings — Sydney Smith — The Clergyman's wife — Various plans 
for bettering the condition of country Incumbents — Difference 
between the Rector and the Vicar — Influence of Curates on 
the agricultural classes — Relations between the Incumbent 
and the Bishop — Parochial duties of the Clergyman — Life in 
a parsonage. 

One of the characteristic features of England since 

the sixteenth century has been the possession of a 

National Church, commonly supposed to have been 

established by Henry VIII. A great many of our 

neighbours, however, do not admire the conduct 

of this king much more than we do, and question 

B 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



his right to the honour of having uplifted the banner 
of their faith. Henry VIII. caused a schism, but 
he did not found a religion. On the contrary, his 
violent passions, his persecutions, and his self- 
interested views, only served to injure the cause of 
the Eeformation in Great Britain. The English 
are wont to turn to more ancient and a thousand 
times purer sources, when they try to seek out 
the origin of their system of worship. They will 
willingly trace up the commencement of their Pro- 
testantism to Wycliff, the reformer before the Re- 
formation, the humble priest who was — after his 
death — judged and condemned for his religious 
opinions, whose very bones the Council of Constance 
ordered to be dug up. WyclifFs doctrines spread, 
like seed carried by the wind, among the Lollards 
and Hussites in England; and two centuries later, 
these germs were again blown over to the shores 
of England by the tempest raised by Luther over all 
Europe. It would certainly be rash to deny that 
the triumph of these new ideas was not assisted, on 
the other side of the Channel, by various political 
circumstances and by state policy ; but would it be 
right to say that it was a movement impelled by the 
higher ranks ? Every thing, on the contrary, leads us 
to believe that the religious reformation in England 
proceeded mainly from the clergy and from the 
people. 

The first divines who revolted against Rome de- 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



termined above every tiling to abolish the principle 
of absolutism in the government of the Church. In 
its tardiness, and in the long period of its develop- 
ment, their work much resembled the grain of 
mustard-seed spoken of by the Evangelist. At its 

beginning it was next to nothing ; but as it in- 

© © © ' 

creased and grew this germ became a great tree, 

on which the fowls of the air — that is, the liberal 

thinkers of the period — came to take their rest. 

After the death of Henry VIII., in the too short 

reign of Edward VI., these new doctrines much 

overstepped the limits which a misty policy had laid 

down for them. All know how much this growing 

© © 

Church was afterwards troubled by the sanguinary 
reaction under Mary Tudor, the restless despotism 
of Elizabeth, and the fervid controversies in Charles 
I.'s time. Next, the transient triumph of the Puri- 
tans changed the form of the liturgy, abolished the 
episcopate, and made over the direction of spiritual 
matters to the Westminster Assembly, composed of 
one hundred and twenty divines and thirty laymen. 
The Restoration, however, soon revived the former 
Protestant hierarchy ; but the Established Church was 
again rent asunder by terrible divisions. The Eng- 
lish too have had their St. Bartholomew's day, when 
two thousand ministers persisted in abandoning their 
livings, because of their unwillingness to accept the 
Prayer-book imposed upon them by authority ; and the 
anniversary of this event, which took place in 1662, 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



is still celebrated with some bitterness in the Non- 
conformist cbapels. 

The Church can hardly be said to have rested on 
an altogether firm foundation until after the revolu- 
tion of 1688. The name of the National Church, 
which she still preserves, is intended to intimate that 
she is held as orthodox by state authority, and that to 
her alone is legally granted the right of levying tithes 
and other imposts ; also that she is partly main- 
tained out of the public revenue, and subject also in 
part to state control. Any who refuse to ally them- 
selves to the doctrines and the formularies of this 
State Church have full and free liberty to embrace 
any other mode of worship ; but they are bound, to 
a certain extent, to contribute pecuniarily towards 
the expenses of carrying on the divine service esta- 
blished by law. For a long period besides they were 
harassed with various civil disabilities, which have 
nearly all been abolished or modified by various 
acts of parliament, mostly since the commencement 
of the present century. 

Religious sentiment has lost none of its vigour in 
England since its separation from the Church of 
Rome ; one would, on the contrary, compare it to 
a tree which only shoots out the more sturdily for 
having been lopped. The great movement of the 
Reformation, while simplifying the external cere- 
monies of worship, and relaxing in some respect 
the trammels of dogmatism, has, on the contrary, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



tended only to concentrate the aspirations of men 
towards the ideal. This Church, the child of Pro- 
testantism, is firmly based both on the Bible and on 
definite civil authority, and it occupies no inconsi- 
derable position in the state ; but it is in the rural 
districts, where religion has a more decided influence 
on the daily life, that we shall find it best to study 
the organisation of the English parish. The cure 
of souls, the interests of the national worship, and 
the education of the people, are all committed to the 
rector's or vicar's charge ; and he therefore exercises 
a high moral authority in his own house, in the 
church, and in the schools, and his active influence is 
considered by all as one of the chief supports of the 
monarchical government. They are also helped in 
their labours by certain laymen, who in every thing 
bring to bear a system of local influence quite worthy 
the attention of any one seeking to penetrate into 
the real spirit of English institutions. The parish 
may be said to bear the same relation to the general 
construction of the Church as the cell does to the 
bee-hive. 

Several favourable circumstances enabled me to 
study some of the aspects of religious life in an Eng- 
lish village. The hamlet I am speaking of is com- 
posed of a group of scattered houses, some standing 
by the road-side, and some mounting the summit of a 
little hill, whilst many lie half hidden in the deep and 
shady lanes. Every thing wears a completely rural 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



aspect; the clumps of trees, the orchards filling up 
the intervals between the cottages, and the hawthorn 
hedges (the resort of the robin), all seem a kind of 
link between the villa and the farm. As it is a cider 
country, the apple-trees are weighed down over the 
fences, covered all over with fruit made rosy on one 
side by the ripening sun. Few of the inhabitants 
are to be seen in the village : the men are in the 
fields ; and as to the women, they are far too busy 
in their cottages to sit and talk at their doors, as 
our labourers' wives in the south so readily do. 
The birds round the corn-stacks are more noisy than 
the women, and their twittering fills up the blank 
caused by the want of the children's voices, who 
are shut up during the day in the quiet school. 
To any one coming from London, the transition 
from all the noise and smoke to the rural quiet of a 
scene like this is full of a peculiar charm and sooth- 
ing sweetness. 

One thing which especially distinguishes English 
villages from ours is, that the former combine all 
classes of society within a limited circuit. The 
manor-house of the squire stands by itself, an an- 
cient and venerable edifice, surrounded with lofty 
trees of a hundred years' standing, on which the 
rooks love to hold their nightly meetings, and to 
fill the air with their tumultuous cawing. A good 
rookery, be it remarked, is a great subject of pride 
with every English gentleman. On the top of the 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



liill stands a large stone house, inhabited by two 
ladies of good family, from the windows of which a 
thoroughly English landscape opens out to the view — 
the dark-green meadows, whose wavy outlines contrast 
well with the silvery mist of the evening sky. Other 
elegant villas, scattered over the neighbourhood, 
point out by their external appearance the refined 
habits of those who live in them. This Foliage is 
situated at more than a hundred miles from the 
capital, and seems at first sight to realise the ideal 
of one of the idyls of Gesner; but it is, on the con- 
trary, nothing but a miniature of London set down 
in the midst of the country. 

It is the habit in England of the most important 
families, instead of shutting themselves up in towns, 
to distribute themselves in little groups over the 
country districts. The constant dream of men of 
business who have made their fortunes is to settle 
themselves down in some rural neighbourhood, there 
to lead the lives of country gentlemen, and thus to 
swell the class of what are called the county families, 
— a rather numerous class, holding a middle place 
between business people and the nobility. The de- 
scendants of these 'parvenus generally continue to live 
on their estates, which are cultivated and beautified 
at great expense ; and the more fortunate among 
them very often marry into some of the oldest fami- 
lies of the country, infusing in this way fresh blood 
into the veins of the landed aristocracy, — so called on 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



the other side of the Channel because they more be- 
long to the land than the land belongs to them. The 
church occupies the centre of the village, a symbol, as 
it were, of the English pastor, who serves as a bond 
of union between the various elements of a society so 
imbued with religious influences. In his education 
and manners he is one of the upper classes ; in his 
evangelical character he is especially the property of 
the poor ; by the whole nature of his sacred charge he 
belongs in common to all men. 

The vicarage, surrounded by walls and gardens, 
is naturally at a very short distance from the church; 
the entrance is through a gateway opening on to a 
lane, which, beginning among the dwellings, soon 
loses itself among the trees and fields. It is a build- 
ing which certainly never proceeded, as a whole, 
from the brain of any one architect, but which has 
been formed by successive additions, just as the needs 
of domestic life became more extended and refined. 
An epitaph inscribed on one of the mossy grave- 
stones in the churchyard tells us that a vicar of this 
parish, long since deceased, had added to his other 
merits that of building a kitchen to the parsonage 
at his own expense. The domestic offices, half hidden 
by a screen of foliage, the stables, and the coach- 
house, all seem to indicate a rather later origin than 
that of the main body of the house. Be that as it 
may, the whole of the dwelling seems to breathe a 
quiet air of comfort — nay, even of sober luxury — 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



which presents a striking contrast to the humble and 
slovenly abodes of our cures cle campagne. Clusters of 
climbing plants cover nearly half of the front of the 
house ; and in the course of time they have shot up 
so high, so thick, and so vigorously, that it takes all 
the exertions of an old gardener, perched up on a 
ladder, either to prune them, or to nail their luxuriant 
branches to the wall. The other side of the house 
is fitted up with a long greenhouse, full of beautiful 
flowers, under the transparent roof of which twine 
the festoons of the vine, supporting here and there 
bunches of Muscat grapes. 

The centre door opens into the hall, a sort of 
square vestibule, communicating on one side with 
the drawing-room, and on the other with the dining- 
room. The vicar works during the day in his library, 
also on the ground-floor. Folding-doors hide the 
staircase, which, divided into two branches, leads up 
to the bed-chambers. The latter are all separate, al- 
though joined by a long corridor, and are quite suffi- 
cient in number to accommodate the family, and at 
the same time to enable all the duties of hospitality 
to be fully exercised. From the windows of the first 
floor we can see a green lawn by the side of the 
flower-garden, bordered by lofty trees, among the 
summits of which the gray church-tower stands out 
in bold relief; its summit was formerly topped by a 
weathercock, which has been destroyed by lightning. 
There is also belonging to the parsonage an excellent 



10 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

kitchen-garden surrounded by walls, and a couple 
of large fields, the property of the church, where 
some sheep are peaceably feeding. On the clay I 
arrived there, these meadows were the scene of a 
rural fete ; flags were floating in the wind, tied at 
intervals to the branches of the apple-trees ; the ah' 
resounded with the joyous shouts of the children in 
the midst of their games ; and the grass was, as it 
were, all blooming with rosy faces animated by acti- 
vity. They were celebrating the school feast. 

It must be confessed that all the English parson- 
ages are not like this. There are some which have 
fallen into a state of dilapidation and decay, which 
has latterly called forth the attention of the ecclesias- 
tical authorities. In principle, a parsonage is bound 
to last for ever ; it is a spiritual property, which the 
new incumbent receives as a life-tenant at his induc- 
tion to the living, and which he is bound to trans- 
mit in as good, condition to his successor. Spiritual 
property, however, when it consists of bricks and 
mortar, is not safer than any other from the injuries 
§f time ; and it must at least be often repaired if 
it is expected to be everlasting. There are some 
parishes where the income of the incumbent is 
not at all in accordance with the dimensions of his 
parsonage ; keeping up the house is then a heavy 
charge upon him ; and unless his religious character 
brings resignation with it, I can easily imagine he 
would not bless the costly residence that only makes 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 11 

him the poorer. Is it not an every-day occurrence 
that the clergyman grows old. ? — it is the common lot 
— and unable even to watch over his own interests, 
he neglects those of his successor. The stones mve 
way by degrees, like the declining strength of the 
master; the floors tremble under even his uncertain 
step ; the roof sinks over his bowed head ; and the 
whole edifice seems to share the sad decrepitude of 
its inhabitant. 

In a case like this, the successor has a right to 
bring an action against the last occupant, if he be 
still alive, or, if not, against his heirs ; kindly feel- 
ings, however, often prevent such measures being 
taken. Supposing that he enters upon them, a sur- 
veyor is named by each of the interested parties to 
examine into the state of the premises, and a third 
is appointed to reconcile any difference of opinion 
between them. The arbitrator's task, in the present 
state of the English law, is far from being so easy 
as one would imagine. A law-suit sometimes fol- 
lows, which lasts for years, during which two advo- 
cates dispute over the ground — or rather over the 
house — foot by foot, and, by their successive efforts 
of eloquence, carry by assault the staircase to-day, 
the windows to-morrow, and then the roof. In any 
case, it is necessary that the last occupant should 
have left behind him sufficient means to cover the 
expenses of repairs; and this is not always the 
case. In this way, certain parsonages in Great 



12 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Britain have fallen into a state of great dilapidation, 
as has been proved by several official inquiries. 

The parsonage forms a part of the clerical emolu- 
ment, or, as it called, the living. To whom, then, it 
will be asked, do these livings belong ? They are 
generally the property of patrons, as they are called 
here.* It is not very difficult to get at the origin 
of this right of patronage. Formerly , the nomination 
of the ministers of worship belonged to the bishop 
of the diocese ; but afterwards, the lord of the 
manor, or any other great landowner, not satisfied 
at having built a church at his own expense, would 
perhaps set apart a portion of his estate, and en- 
cumber it with tithes in perpetuity, for the main- 
tenance of a resident priest. The close union of 
the aristocracy and the clergy is nowhere more 
strongly marked than in Great Britain, as we may 
judge by the number of villages in which the 
church stands within a gunshot of the castle. Still, 
the fate of the two buildings has often been very 
different ; the castle is in ruins, and almost hidden 



* Of 11,728 livings which exist in England and Wales, 1114 
are in the hands of the Crown, who presents to them through the 
medium of the Lord Chancellor ; 1853 are distributed by the 
Archbishops and Bishops ; 938 are at the disposal of the various 
Deans and Chapters ; 770 are attached to the Universities of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge, and to the great schools, such as Eton, Win- 
chester, &c. ; 931 are given away by the incumbents of the mother 
churches (so called when chapels of ease have been detached from 
them) ; and the remainder (that is 6092) are held by various indi- 
viduals who are called patrons. 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 13 

by ivy and brambles ; while the church remains 
standing in a sort of perpetual freshness, protected 
by [the faith of the inhabitants. A family likeness 
in the architectural features bespeaks a common ori- 
gin for both; they are quite, as it were, brother 
and sister. 

Id order to encourage the zeal of the lay nobility 
in building churches and in liberally endowing them, 
the bishops were in the habit of granting to the 
founder and his heirs the right of choosing the 
minister of the parish. Things went on thus when 
England was Catholic; and the Reformation made 
but little or no change. The Anglican Church has 
remained, in its material construction, a branch of 
feudalism. At the present day, when a living is 
vacant, three persons play their part in filling it 
up, — the patron, the clerk, and the bishop. The 
patron is looked upon as the descendant or the 
representative of the original founder, and from 
this title enjoys the privilege of presenting to the 
bishop of the diocese the clerk or clergyman whom 
he considers fit to occupy the living committed to 
his charge. This privilege is called the advowson 
(from advocatio), because he who exercises it is 
bound in conscience to protect the interests both of 
the Church and of the future incumbent. The clerk 
is the clergyman recommended by the patron. As 
to the bishop, or ordinary, his part is usually 
confined to registering in writing the request ad- 



U EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

dressed to Mm by the lay guardian of the benefice. 
He has, it is true, twenty days in which to con- 
sider and examine the vouchers of the candidate ; 
strictly, he can even reject him ; but in this case 
he is compelled to state why he rejects him (quare 
impedit). The motives on which his refusal is 
grounded may afterwards be questioned in the courts 
of law by either the patron or the rejected clergy- 
man, and the result will ultimately be decided by 
a jury. 

The power, then, of the bishops in all that re- 
gards the presentation to livings has nothing dis- 
cretionary about it; it may be a possible check to 
the influx of favouritism and to the interested man- 
oeuvres of the laity ; but it very rarely happens that 
the ordinary exercises his right of veto ^ and the candi- 
date named by the patron may generally be looked 
upon as the future incumbent. There are some cases 
even where the approval of the bishop is not at all 
necessary. The patron, who, under the circum- 
stances, is generally some nobleman of importance, 
has the power of giving directly the chui*ch and the 
benefice to the clergyman whom he has himself se- 
lected. This is what is called a donative advowso?i.* 
When the bishop has a right of intervening, he reads 

* Most of the English civilians trace back the origin of these 
donative advoivsons to the Crown. " The king," say they, " has 
the right of founding churches and chapels independent of the 
jurisdiction of the bishop ; and he can also, by special favour, 
transmit this prerogative to any of his subjects." 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 15 

a written formula to the accepted candidate, and 
hands to him a deed furnished with the episcopal 
seal. He then directs the archdeacon, or some 
other high official in his diocese, to instal the new 
incumbent in his church and the enjoyment of his 
rights. This being done, the clergyman becomes 
what is^called in England a parson (a minister in 
right of a jyarish). 

In the eyes of the law an advowson constitutes 
an actual property ; it can be left by will, alienated, 
or sold, either for ever or for a term of years : it can 
even be seized by creditors in the case of the patron 
of a living dying in debt. This privilege very often 
gives rise to another class of transaction. It every day 
happens that the proprietor of an advowson makes 
over the next 'presentation to some third party for a sum 
of money, — that is to say, he gives the right of nam- 
ing an incumbent when the benefice becomes vacant. 
There are, indeed, some cures which are thus sold 
in advance down to the second or third vacancy. 
This sort of business occasionally figures in the news- 
papers, in the columns for advertisements. The pro- 
perty in an advowson is, besides, ruled by peculiar 
laws and some rather curious usages. A child of 
the tenderest age can present a clergyman to a living 
in his patronage. Even if he be unable to write, his 
guardian, or any other person who has dictated his 
choice, may guide his hand in signing the deed. 
In any case where the patron becomes afflicted with 



16 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

mental aberration, the Lord Chancellor exercises the 
right in his stead, — very often, though, in favour of 
a member of the patient's family, in the event of 
'one of them happening to be in orders. Female 
holders of an advowson have quite as much a voice 
in the matter as the men ; and if there are several 
joint-heiresses of the same right of presentation, and 
they cannot agree as to the choice of a candidate, 
they each present in turn, beginning with the eldest. 

The power of making rectors and vicars belongs 
to all sorts of laymen, and some of them perhaps 
may not be very orthodox; the patron of a living 
may be a dissenter, a Jew, or even an atheist, but 
he must not be a Catholic. It is, after all, easy 
enough to see the motive for this last prohibition 
at a time when the Catholic religion was a source 
of menace and danger to England. It was feared 
that the patrons, many of whom belonged to ancient 
families, might introduce priests of the Komish Church 
into the benefices, and, in the biblical language of 
the period, thus throw open the sheep-fold to the 
wolves. 

The exercise of this right of advowson may cer- 
tainly engender more than one abuse, and even 
clergymen themselves admit this ; we must not, 
however, forget that in a country where any thing 
and every thing may be either said or written, the 
choice of an incumbent is to some extent subject 
to the sanction of public opinion. Without this 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 17' 

guarantee, many ancient usages would perhaps have 
long ago disappeared in England ; and it is chiefly 
in tliis sense that among our neighbours liberty has 
shown itself as a conservative element. We must 
also note that this intervention of the lay element in 
selecting the ministers of the Church permits wealthy 
people to purchase this right of presentation in order 
to establish some one of their pvot^jts. The right of 
advowson also is, in a way, the opening through 
which the younger sons of noble families, and the 
scions of the aristocracy of money, can make their 
way into benefices of the Church. 

To be in a position to obtain a benefice, it is 
necessary previously to have been ordained a priest. 
How then do persons become clergymen in Eng- 
land ? Every young man who intends to take orders 
begins at first by following a university course, and 
he must attain the degree of bachelor of arts at least. 
Without this degree he will not, except under pecu- 
liar circumstances, find any bishop that will accept 
him, nor any rector or vicar who would employ him 
as curate,* and he would certainly make no way in 
the Church. A good classical education, therefore, 
is considered as the basis of the priestly training. 
Besides, a residence in the universities presents many 



* It must be understood that in England the ecclesiastical 
ranks are inverted, if we compare them with those existing in 
France. The Vicar (or Eector) is the ecclesiastical chief of the 
parish, whilst the Curate is only a deputy, curator animarum. 

C 



,18 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

advantages ; a candidate for Holy Orders may have 
elbowed on the benches of the lecture-room a Byron, 
a Shelley, or a Stuart Mill; he has lived in the 
midst of independent minds and unfettered studies. 
There no moral pressure determines his choice, and 
he voluntarily embraces a clerical career. He is not 
like those who have been separated from the world 
from their infancy, and have learnt to curse the age 
that they know nothing about, and to dread the mere 
phantom of society that they only look at through the 
terrors of their conscience. Up to this point his 
studies have been nothing but literary ; the bishop, 
however, requires of him, besides his diploma as 
bachelor of arts, a certificate testifying that he has 
gone through a course of lectures of the Professor 
of Divinity at the university. In every thing else 
there is nothing to distinguish him externally from 
the other students he associates with, and in his habits 
he has no resemblance at all to the se'minariste. 

After having taken his degree, the candidate for 
orders prepares for the bishop's examination. Unless 
he be a fellow of some college, he also looks out for 
some rector or vicar who will be willing to nominate 
him as his curate, when he has become one of the 
clerical body. This rector or vicar then signs a paper 
which is called a title to orders, and on which is 
specified the amount of the stipend attached to the 
office. This is usually about SOI. per annum ; it is 
not very often, in any case, that the sum exceeds 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 19 

1001. Tliere are some incumbents who do not at 
all like giving titles in tins way, because, in the first 
place, they are thus obliged to give a trial to quite 
inexperienced men, and also because a newly-ordained 
curate is only a deacon during the two first years of 
his ministry, and cannot therefore administer the 
Sacrament of Communion, or, as it is called here, 
the LorcTs Supper.* Some are found, however, who, 
having the interests of the Church in view, or for 
some other reason, will consent to give an apprentice- 
ship, as it were, to the young minister. 

Furnished with his university degree and with 
his title for orders, and also with a certificate of 
good conduct for the three last years preceding his 
application, the young candidate now presents him- 
self to the bishop, who examines him in Greek, 
Latin, and Divinity. If he comes out victorious from 
the test, he is ordained by the bishop of the diocese 
as a deacon of the Church, and receives from him a 
license, empowering him to officiate as a curate for 
two years, under the direction of the incumbent 
nominating him. By the expiration of this period 
he must necessarily have learnt much in his visits to 
the poor and afflicted ; he will have tried his oratori- 
cal talents in the pulpit, and will be fully acquainted 
with all the duties imposed upon him by his vocation. 

* The custom in the Church of England is to ordain deacons 
at not less than twenty-three years of age, and priests at twenty- 
five at least. 



20 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

When he wishes to make a further step in the Church, 
he must again present himself to the bishop of the 
diocese, and must pass a second examination, with a 
view of being ordained a priest. This ceremony, 
like the former ordination, takes place in the cathe- 
dral. The ceremonial is grave and imposing ; but no 
idea of a voluntary death or of a renunciation of the 
world is at all appealed to in the Protestant rites in 
this service. The new priest is only bound to sub- 
scribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and to 
the Prayer-book,* and thus engages to believe and 
profess the doctrines of the Anglican Church. 

Now, henceforth endued with the priestly charac- 
ter, the young clergyman more often continues to 
officiate as curate in a parish. And in this position 
he very often makes an advantageous marriage. In 
doing this a young clergyman has more than one 
advantage over other men : in the first place, he is 
admitted into the very best society, and there are 
very few agricultural districts where there are not a 
good many rich and respectable families within a few 
miles round. These families exercise hospitality ac- 
cording to the old English traditions, and there are 
very few great dinners given in which a place at table 
is not kept for the curate of the parish. Being a 
bachelor, he lodges in the village just as he can, and 



* These Thirty-nine Articles, which contain the profession of 
faith of the English Reformed Church, were adopted in 1571 by 
Queen Elizabeth and by Act of Parliament. 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN EXGLAXD. 21 

his indoor arrangements are generally of the most 
modest character ; but his education and manners 
will bear comparison with those of any of the upper 
classes. The link of their works of charity in com- 
mon soon establishes between him and the young 
heiresses of the neighbourhood a kind of respectful 
intimacy, which in many cases may easily hide a 
more tender sentiment. Besides, he appeals to the 
heart in its very noblest perceptions ; his youth, his 
eloquence, and his religious zeal, all become involun- 
tary means of fascination with the feebler and more 
enthusiastic sex. Attachments of this sort are like 
the " still waters," which, according to the English 
proverb, " run deep," and at the same time reflect 
the blue sky above them. Man}- a young lady among 
the aristocracy, who would refuse to marry a lawyer 
or a doctor, would not at all deem it a mesalliance 
if she united herself to a member of the clerical body. 
By means of marriages thus contracted a portion 
of the weajth of the upper classes finds its way into 
the hands of the ministers of the Church. 

The married curate generally aspires to becoming 
a rector or a vicar ; but in order to attain his end a 
number of requisites are necessary. The greater 
part, unfortunately, never rise above the so-called 
inferior grade. He who has neither influence, nor 
powerful recommendations, nor extraordinary per- 
sonal qualities, will remain a curate all his life, unless 
he be rich. Those, on the contrary, who have power- 



EELICxIOUS LIEE EN" EXGLAXD. 



fol interest, or are distinguished in learning, may 
obtain a living either from the Queen, the bishop, the 
Universities, or one of the metropolitan Chapters. 
The others — that is, those who have money — enter- 
tain the hope of buying one; they must not, how- 
ever, do this themselves, or they would render them- 
selves guilty of simony. The way it is managed is 
this : some friend, or a member of their family, buys 
for them, from the holder of an advowson, the right 
of the next presentation on the death of the present 
incumbent. * The value of the living thus indirectly 
bought depends, as one would imagine, on several 
conditions : but the contracting parties never fail to 
take notice beforehand whether the parsonage is in 
good or bad repair, and to ascertain the annual in- 
come derivable from the benefice. The payment is 
considered in every case as money invested, on which 
interest is looked for. 

The Church of England presents the extraordinary 
spectacle of a state church winch is not paid by the 
State. She depends upon a very large fund of pro- 
perty, accumulated for ages by the piety of the faithful 
under the form of dotations. The principal sources 
of income in a rural living are : the land belonging 

* It is easy to suppose that several kinds of fraud might creep 
into these transactions : the law has therefore sought to resist 
causes which tended to corrupt the sources of clerical dignities. 
For instance, the right of presentation cannot be sold after the 
living has become vacant, nor even during the last illness of the 
incumbent. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 23 

to the parsonage, the tithes, the church-rates, — these, 
however, are exclusively devoted to the repairs of the 
church and the maintenance of divine worship, — the 
Easter offerings, and the surplice fees. The tithe is 
usually the most productive of all these sources of 
revenue. Tithe is a word which will, I fear, sound 
offensive in French ears. With us the Revolution, 
and subsequently the Concordat, have fundamentally 
altered the constitution of the Church, without inter- 
fering with its doctrines or with the Catholic liturgy. 
Just the reverse has taken place in England ; there 
the Reformation considerably modified religious dog- 
mas, but for the most part respected the ancient or- 
ganisation and privileges of the clerical body. Thus 
we have the phenomenon of a Protestant Church 
grafted, as it were, upon the institutions of the 
Middle Ages. 

Twenty years ago, however, tithes, under their 
ancient form, were not a bit more popular on that 
side of the Channel than on this. As to abolishing 
them, though, this was not even thought of; they 
constituted a property belonging to the Church, which 
was recognised by law, and had been handed down 
from generation to generation ; which also was based 
on ancient contracts. The English do not deal incon- 
siderately with titles such as these. It was, however, 
a clergyman, Dr. Paley, who, being himself struck 
with the inexpediency of this impost, proposed to 
commute them. The disturbed state of the Church of 



24: KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Ireland, where the collection of tithes met with obsti- 
nate resistance on the part of the Catholics, determined 
the success of this measure, which was not definitively 
adopted until 1838, although it had been recommended 
since 1832 by committees of both houses of parliament. 
In each parish of England and Ireland an annual pay- 
ment, representing the value of the ancient offerings, 
was substituted for the tenth part of all commodities 
constituting the large and small tithes. Almost every- 
where a mutual agreement between the landed pro- 
prietors and the tithe-holders arranged the terms of 
this commutation ; and in any case where the parties 
interested could not come to an understanding, com- 
missioners intervened to set matters right. 

This tax is now settled upon landed property; but 
it may vary according to the price of corn, reckoning 
it from the seven last years. In order to avoid all 
dispute, the Comptroller of Corn-returns publishes 
every January the average value of a bushel of wheat, 
barley, and oats during the period fixed by law. Thus 
the incumbent receives his share of the crop in money 
and not in kind. It is easy to see that this system of 
fluctuation in the impost introduces some uncertainty 
into the amount of the rector's or vicar's income. 
Supposing that the tithes have been commuted for 
300/. a year, it may nevertheless happen that, in 
consequence of the variations in the price of corn, 
a minister may sometimes receive only 260/., and 
sometimes perhaps 340/. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 



The greater part of the English parsonages have 
some land attached to them, known under the name 
of the glebe, which the incumbent can either let or 
farm himself. The church-rates are always appro- 
priated to the maintenance of the sacred edifice. The 
Easter offerings are a kind of voluntary contribution. 
Every year at Easter the parish clerk waits upon all 
the gentry and shopkeepers with a little book, in 
which, on behalf of the vicar, he asks them to put 
down their offering. As to the surplice fees, they 
are made up, as with us, of the sums payable for 
marriages, burials, &c. All these sources of income 
joined together make up what is called in England a 
living ; for the minister receives no payment properly 
so called. There is the greatest possible inequality 
among livings ; some are like the promised land, 
flowing with milk and honey, and others more re- 
semble the dry and unproductive desert. 

There are in England more than ten thousand 
parishes, differing from one another more or less 
in importance and extent. Every thing shows that 
there was no plan followed in fixing the boundaries 
of these ecclesiastical districts, but that they were 
formed just as it happened, according to the caprice 
of the original recipients of the endowment. In them 
the traces of the feudal regime still remain indicated 
in the distribution of the soil ; and the limits of the 
parish often coincide with the boundaries of the 
manor. The zeal, generosity, and pecuniary means 



2Q KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

of noble families — indeed various accidental causes — 
have thus fixed the value of the living; that is, the 
provision devoted to the maintenance of the clergy- 
man. It has been calculated that the average of 
these livings does not amount to more than 300/. 
a year each ; but as the incomes of some of the 
incumbents mount much above this sum, others 
must naturally receive much less.* In the latter 
case the clergyman is often much embarrassed ; and 
he is really all" the poorer because he is compelled to 
conceal his poverty. 

In England every position imposes its obligations. 
How often have I known gentlemen who ruined 
themselves, or perhaps deprived themselves of the 



* There are some livings — not many, it is true — which do not 
bring in more than 50Z. to 1001. a year. Certain ecclesiastical dis- 
tricts, as, for example, that of St. Mark's, Horselydown, have neither 
parsonage, nor school, nor any public service whatever, and yet 
its population amounts to 2920 inhabitants. Other districts, on 
the contrary, enjoy a revenue which they ought to have no right 
to. At Merston, between Gravesend and Eochester, there is a 
parish of which the living, in the patronage of the Lord Chan- 
cellor, is estimated to be worth 90?. a year. The church has long- 
since disappeared, and since 1455 there have been no inhabitants. 
This sinecure is generally granted to some neighbouring incum- 
bent, whose income is thereby increased. The clergyman who 
lately succeeded to the living of Merston came to take possession. 
It was on a Sunday, and a large tent was pitched on the site of the 
former church, in which a congregation of 600 persons assembled, 
no doubt drawn together by the novelty of the spectacle ; and the 
singing of psalms rose up in the midst of the solitude. This 
religious service was, without doubt, both the first and the last 
which will be celebrated at Merston during the life of the present 
incumbent. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 27 

necessaries of life, in order to sacrifice to appear- 
ances ! The vicar's wife must be dressed like a lady. 
A practised eve might, indeed, discover a difference 
between her toilet and that of the squire's or a rich 
rector's wife ; but still it is necessary that the common 
people should notice this difference as little as pos- 
sible. His children, on the other hand, must be clean 
and well-dressed, as gentlefolks' children are ; and 
as to himself, he is obliged to wear a white neckcloth 
and a good black cloth coat ; in one word, he must 
present the respectable exterior of a clergyman. Add 
to all this the keeping up of the parsonage, which 
must not be allowed to get into bad repair. When, 
as is often the case, the clergyman finds the balance 
unequal between his income and his expenses, he 
generally tries to better his condition by some means 
or other. He is prohibited by law from going into 
business; but he is allowed, with the consent of the 
bishop of the diocese, to farm for seven years a por- 
tion of land not exceeding eighty acres. This was 
the resource of the father of Oliver Goldsmith, the 
Dr. Primrose of the Vicar of Wakefield, who was, at 
the same time, both farmer and priest. Others receive 
young people in their houses as boarders, for the pur- 
pose of instruction. There are some also who write 
for the magazines and reviews. 

However poor the clergyman may be, his family 
generally receive a liberal classical education. Having 
nothing better to bequeath to them, he bounteously 



28 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

imparts to them all that he himself possesses. His 
daughters even do not escape this clerical influence, 
and in the quiet retreat of the parsonage they some- 
times become perfect models of scholarship. Some 
of them are even accomplished Greek scholars, and 
perhaps help their fathers in translating for the Lon- 
don booksellers some of the ancient authors of the 
primitive church. I must say that this profound 
education, resulting from retirement and the strict 
routine of an orderly life, is not very conducive to 
helping on the marriages of the daughters of the 
clergy and their establishment in the world. Many 
a young man of no very deep intellectual power will 
shrink from the idea cVepouser les saints peres. In 
spite of the richest flaxen tresses, the most fascinating 
blue eyes, and the slenderest white hand, all urging 
their apologies for the treasures of ancient eloquence, 
a clergyman's daughter without fortune very often 
finds herself wedded to Greek all her life. 

The struggle of some clergymen with all the harsh 
necessities of life does not always shut out every indi- 
cation of gaiety in these Christian philosophers. The 
Eeverend Sydney Smith, one of the most charming 
of English humorists, is never so amusing as when he 
relates, as cheerfully as possible, all his personal tribu- 
lations. The parsonage of his own building ; his fur- 
niture roughly put together from a stock of deal bought 
by chance ; his old carriage, which came out fresh 
again every year, owing to the repairs necessary to 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 29 

'± 

prevent its tumbling to bits ; the stumpy gardener's 
wife, formed by nature like a milestone, of whom he 
made a butler : — all these things vividly depict the life 
of a poor country vicar in some districts in England.* 

In a case like this the clergyman's wife exercises 
much influence on the well-being of the household. 
Busy as a bee and not less frugal, she acts as minister 
in the indoor life of the parsonage by the same title 
as her husband does in the church. She is the in- 
structress of the younger children, and in every way 
helps to eke out the slender resources of the living. 
And then with how much better grace than her hus- 
band does she sometimes yield to the mortifying 
necessity of having to accept the bounty of a bene- 
factor ! Whilst the former, once an Oxford or Cam- 
bridge man, tries to hide his deprivations under the 
haughty gravity of a stoical mind, how willingly does 
she glean up in the Church's field any of those sheaves 
which are left by the hands of the rich ! After all is 
said, is she not a mother, and must she not think of 
her children ? 

Several systems have been proposed to do away 
with this inequality in livings, at least in part. It 
will be sufficient if we mention those that really exist. 
A fund known under the name of Queen Anne's 
Bounty, formed by an ecclesiastical impost on the 
first-fruits of the land, was instituted, even before 

* See Memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith, by his daughter, Lady 
Holland : with a selection from his Letters. 



30 BELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

* 

the time of Queen Anne, to augment the resources 
of certain livings. The administrators of this fund 
(the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty) are mostly 
dignitaries of the Church of England, and are in 
the hahit of making an addition to the incomes of 
small livings under 200£, a year. Various societies, 
based upon a system of voluntary contributions, also 
come to the help of the clergy who are in need.* 
An Ecclesiastical Commission has been formed within 
the last few years, to open up in the Church itself a 
new source of income, and thus to ameliorate the 
position of country incumbents. 

In every diocese, the bishops, deans, and chapters 
have been the possessors from time immemorial of 
large property, consisting chiefly of landed estates. 
Following an ancient custom, these estates have been 
let for a certain number of lives, usually three. The 
first of this series of tenants paid at his coming-in 
a considerable sum of money, known under the name 
of a fine ; and a small annual sum was afterwards 
paid as rent during the whole remainder of the 
lease. In this way, those members of the great 



* One of these Societies lately celebrated its 211th anniver- 
sary, under the presidency of the Prince of Wales. This was the 
Festival of the Sons of the Clergy. This Society assists every year 
1250 persons, of whom 712 are either the widows or orphans of 
clergymen. There is also the Poor Clergy Relief Society , the Secre- 
tary of which, the Rev. "W. G. Jervis, published in 1861 a touching 
report, full of well-authenticated facts, as to the extreme misery 
of 400 clergymen belonging to the Church of England. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 31 

ecclesiastical bodies who were living at the time 
when a contract like this was entered into had an 
unfair preference given them, to the detriment of 
their successors. It is true that the latter might 
enjoy the same advantage, if they were fortunate 
enough to outlive the expiration of the lease ; but 
some time was naturally necessary to wipe out three 
men's lives. In order to distribute the revenues of 
the corporation more equally among the successive 
members, it was at last decided that whenever any 
of the tenants should chance to die, another one 
might be substituted, who should pay an agreed fine 
at his entering on the tenancy. 

Such was the system of life-tenancy under which 
most of the landed estates of the Church were man- 
aged when the Commission entered upon its labours. 

Struck with the inexpediency of this plan, and 
with the too small profit which the Church drew 
from her property, the Commission proposed to take 
in hand the ecclesiastical estates, and to give in ex- 
change property free from all liability, and averaging 
in its annual income that which, the chapters had 
received under the system of tithes. This alteration 
promises great advantages; and the surplus income 
is to be applied to the augmentation of small livings; 
It is said that the resources of the English clergy 
will be so far improved by this method of dealing 
with them, that no country incumbent will receive 
less than 300?. a year. 



KELIGIOTJS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



The clergy is represented in the rural districts 
by the rector, the vicar, and the curate. The rector 
is a clergyman who receives all the tithes of a parish. 
The vicar, as appears from the derivation of the word, 
is one who acts in the place of another — vicarius. At 
a long-distant period, certain patrons of the Church, 
who had it in their own power to nominate a rector, 
yielded up this right in favour of monasteries, or 
some other religious communities. The monks, in- 
stead of naming a rector, made a profit of it, by 
having the duties of the cure performed by one of 
their own body, or by some other paid minister, 
and thus appropriated the income of the benefice 
for their own establishment. It has come to pass, 
in this way, that many churches in England have 
been stripped of their income by the convents. In 
some cases the bishops interfered, and compelled the 
religious bodies no longer to content themselves with 
make-shifts who could any day be dismissed, but to 
appoint a fixed minister, and to allot to him a por- 
tion of the tithes. Such is the origin of vicars. In 
cases like this, the convent did not fail to keep its 
double character of patron and rector, and in both 
these characters to take the lion's share ; and this is 
why so many vicarages are at the present^ time so 
slenderly provided for. 

At the time of the Reformation, all the property 
of the monastic orders was seized upon by the 
Crown, and this confiscation also extended to the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX EXGLAXD. 



beneficial interests that they might have in various 
parishes. Some of this property was returned to the 
clergy, but a still greater portion was sold to differ- 
ent persons. A class was thus formed in England 
of hay Impropriators. These are, in fact, the rectors 
of the parish ; and the vicars perform for them all 
the spiritual duties of the cure, receiving in return 
that portion of the tithe which the rector pleases to 
allow them. 

The curate, on his side, is the assistant of the 
rector or vicar: but he cannot be dismissed by either 
of them. He is, to a certain extent, licensed by the 
bishop at the nomination of the rector, and the agree- 
ment with him can only be broken by episcopal au- 
thority. There generally exists, however, a private 
arrangement between the contracting parties, by 
which the curate binds himself in honour to retire 
in case the rector finds that he does not suit. Al- 
though much worse paid, the curate is sometimes 
more eloquent than his superior, and is also more 
popular in the parish. The labouring men are in 
general rather timid of the rector ; he is too rich for 
them. The young curates, on the contrary, still in 
full possession of all the freshness of clerical zeal, 
sympathise generally with the poorer classes, and 
work nobly for their good. Amidst all the confu- 
sion of doctrine stirred up by an age of doubt and 
free inquiry, they busy themselves more readily in 
good works than in religious controversy. " Action, 

D 



34 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

in any case," is their motto, and they are exercising 
a real influence over the people.* 

One feature which distinguishes almost all the 
grades in the Anglican hierarchy is, that the mem- 
bers of them do not depend entirely on the Church. 
A great number of rectors and vicars are the sons 
either of noble parents, of rich merchants, or of landed 
proprietors, and have personal property either of 
their own, or through their wives ; and this naturally 
gives them a kind of independence. It is almost 
necessary that this should be the case ; for how else 
could they afford to carry on the works of charity 
in their parishes, and to establish schools — the ex- 
pense of which in great measure falls upon them — 
and also to provide for a curate? Country vicars, 
taking one with another, possess private means equal 
to the income that they derive from their livings. It 
can scarcely be said, therefore, that the Church main- 
tains the clergy; for at least, in a great measure, 
it is the clergy who maintain the Church. A posi- 
tion like this, so uncommon in other countries, has 
tended much to develop the social and political in- 
fluence of the ministers of religion in England. A 
clergyman will freely mingle in all the pleasant en- 
tertainments of the neighbourhood; for he is not cut 

* The name of curate is also given — but in this case it is 
called perpetual curate — to the minister of a church in which no 
vicarage has ever been established, or to the minister of a chapel 
founded since the establishment of the parish by the benevolence 
of some pious soul. 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 35 

off from the upper classes by celibacy, the prejudices 
of religious caste, or by any great inferiority of for- 
tune. Instead of humbly sitting down at the table 
of some rich man, and eating a dinner lie is not able 
to offer a return for, lie, on the contrary, can invite 
to bis own bouse baronets, lords, and judges; thus 
disarranging the order of rank in the equality of 
intellect. His talents, which thus count for capital 
in England, give him a right to be listened to ; for 
many country clergymen are both learned and well 
acquainted with literature ; many of them might have 
chosen some other career, and might easily have 
made themselves famous by the efforts of their 
genius. 

The position of the English incumbent is not at 
all subject to the caprice of the bishop, as is the case 
with our Curfa de campagne. He has bought his ap- 
pointment, or some one else has bought it for him, 
which amounts to the same thing ; it is, therefore, 
vested in him as a kind of property ; and it is well 
known what a respect our neighbours have for vested 
rights. According to some people, this respect has 
been pushed rather too far, and has been injurious, 
in some instances, to the discipline of the Church. 
The bishop has scarcely any means of displacing an 
incumbent unfaithful to his duties : he can, it is true, 
proceed against him in the ecclesiastical courts; but 
little except scandal results from this course ; and it 
is seldom that he obtains any actual redress. A liti- 



36 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

gation of this sort took place some years ago in Eng- 
land. A clergyman, backed up by the lord of an 
ancient manor, had for some years led a not very 
edifying life. After having in vain exhausted both 
remonstrance and advice, the spiritual chief of the 
diocese determined to have recourse to legal means. 
The bishop spent a great deal of money; the noble 
friend of the clergyman spent still more ; and the 
end of it all was, that after some very long proceed- 
ings, the clergyman got off, if not exculpated, at 
least with impunity. 

It may sometimes happen, on the other hand, that 
the conduct of an incumbent may not give rise to 
any cause for censure, but yet that he may entertain 
opinions contrary to those held to be orthodox in the 
Anglican Church ; in this case, also, it is very diffi- 
cult to touch him. The fact is, that at the time of 
the Reformation, the Anglican Church, having just 
passed from under the authority of the Pope into the 
hands of the Sovereign, became so subject to the civil 
authorities, and so mixed up with the administration 
of secular matters, that she finds herself, even at the 
present day, quite disarmed and almost powerless in 
restraining any abuses in her own members. 

In striking contrast to the above, the bishop may 
exercise an absolute and arbitrary control over the 
actions of the curate ; he can either suspend or dis- 
miss him at will. It is not difficult to see the cause 
for this difference ; the curate is a mere stipendiary, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



whilst the incumbent seems, as it were, unassailable 
behind the laws of property, which shelter him like a 
rampart against all the thunders of ecclesiastical au- 
thority. 

We can very easily sec that the English clergy 
have not taken as literal the advice of* the Evange- 
list as to the fowls of the air and the lilies of the 
field, but, on the contrary, have considered it pru- 
dent to lay up a good store of flax wherewith to spin 
cloth for their surplices, and, when they could man- 
age it, to construct barns wherein to gather their 
abundance. In a country where the possession of 
property is a great source of influence, it is necessary 
to be rich, if you wish to be powerful ; and in this aim 
the clergy have been assisted from time to time by 
the piety of the faithful. We shall not be right, 
however, in thinking that a care for their material 
interests on the part of the clergy eats up all the 
energy of their religious convictions. The Anglican 
Church is an institution which is at the same time 
both temporal and spiritual ; but it is with reference 
to the latter that she manages to command the re- 
spect of the population generally. 

Even Protestantism has its ideal ; but this ideal 
always finds its realisation in practical duties. One 
of the principal things which is looked for in a 
country incumbent is his example : his house must 
be a model of propriety ; for in the eyes of the Eng- 
lish all religious duties commence in domestic life. 



38 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Ill order to accomplish this, a clergyman should be 
married; for how could he present to others the 
type of all these home virtues if he be debarred from 
exercising them by any personal vows ? The moral 
force, which constantly distinguishes the middle 
classes in England, takes its rise in great part from 
their mode of living. In England every one has his 
own separate home, in which he shuts up all the best 
feelings of his heart. This separation assists those 
habits of reflection and retrospection, which scarcely 
ever fail to evolve a certain religious ideal. A seclu- 
sion — which is in no way either restrictive or forbid- 
ding — will thus develop the moral qualities of the 
individual, — that inner life and those noble feelings 
which raise a man to a fit relation with nature and 
nature's God. A parsonage surrounded with peace- 
ful verdure, and hidden like a nest under the shade 
both of its lofty trees and of the venerable church, is 
better situated than most places for study and reverie. 
In the recesses of a calm retreat like this, a heart 
must either be absorbed in self-communing, or it 
must elevate itself to God. 

The employment of the time and the arrangement 
of the day is strictly regulated in an English parson- 
age. At eight o'clock in the morning the breakfast- 
bell rings. The frugal meal is preceded by family 
prayers, read by the minister, in which the whole of 
the inmates, including the servants, take a part. 
During the morning the vicar works in his study, or 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



39 



visits the poor. With his round hat on, and his 
gold-headed cane under his arm, he saunters along 
the lanes. The school-children bow to him as he 
passes ; and some of the boldest of them, perhaps, 
will even dare to speak to him. A venerable clergy- 
man leaves behind him a long train of reminiscences 
on the village memory : his kind words, his smile, 
the way in which he used to speak to the children, 
are all enshrined in the recollection of those who 
have known him, and are talked over round their 
firesides. At one o'clock the vicar's family are again 
assembled round the table for lunch ; and both before 
and after the meal grace is said, and thanks are re- 
turned hi a short form of words. The afternoon is 
devoted to visiting, to excursions, or to the transac- 
tion of any parochial business. Half an hour before 
dinner every one retires to his room to dress. When 
the bell rings, they come down to the drawing-room, 
where there are often guests invited by the master or 
mistress of the house. English incumbents are con- 
stantly in the habit of receiving company ; these 
social relations form a bond of union between the 
Church and the charitable families in the parish. 
After the dinner, which is arranged according to the 
usual English customs, the ladies first, and then the 
gentlemen, return to the drawing-room, where they 
take tea, and occasionally have some music. 

There are some incumbents, not very many, it is 
true, who have latterly conceived the rather happy 



40 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

idea of inviting once a week the farmers, and on 
another day the very labourers, to spend the evening 
with them. If this example were generally followed, 
it would form an excellent means of elevating the 
lower classes. The party breaks up about eleven ; 
and the inmates being once more alone, the minister 
reads the evening family prayers. These few simple 
habits are constantly followed out in many other 
English houses : how, then, is there any peculiarity 
about the parsonage ? It can only consist in a kind 
of aroma of old customs, in the sanctity of social re- 
lations joined to domestic life, and in the beam of 
light which religious ideas always shed on a quiet 
and well-regulated home. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Church — The Sunday services — System of seats — Why there 
is no altar in Protestant churches — Morning service — Why 
the English can call themselves Catholics — The Funeral 
Service — " Harvest- Home" — Church-rates and Vestry Meet- 
ings — The parish officers — Churchwardens — Village clubs — 
The Incumbent who is liked by the parishioners, and the In- 
cumbent who is not liked — Charities and parochial visiting. 

Sunday is naturally the principal day when the 

minister's functions are exercised in public About 
half-past ten in the morning the church-bells begin 
ringing, and summon the church-goers to their public 

worship. Some groups of rustics are already assem- 
bled in the churchyard, which is a sort of Sunday 
place of meeting, a kind of rural forum, where the 
interests of the living are discussed among the 
graves. Sunday rubs off the rust of the week : 
people dress in their best, and meet other folk ; and 
even those who have kept aloof from the rest of the 
world all the week renew to-day their associations 
with social life. All try to look their be.-t in the 
eyes of the village ; the young girls especially seek 
to enhance their personal advantages, and glory in 
putting on the showy produce of their savings. The 
clergyman is not long before he passes through the 
churchyard on his way to the vestry ; he is bowed to, 



42 BELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

as he passes, by sedate rustics, whose countenances 
breathe an honest freedom. If the weather is rainy, 
or, still more, if it is harvest-time, it often happens 
that his congregation is not very numerous. In 
this case he manages to hide a sort of reprimand 
under an appearance of kind interest and solicitude. 
Questioning his parishioners one after the other, he 
inquires after their wife, their mother, or their son : 
Are they ill, that he does not see them coming to 
church ? The honest people well understand him, 
and, with a half-blush, mutter some little excuse. A 
clergyman once had as parishioner a squire who 
never attended public worship ; the minister offered 
one day to pray for him before all the congregation. 
" Why so ?" asked the astonished gentleman. " Be- 
cause," replied the rector, "you never pray for 
yourself." The story does not say if the menace was 
effectual in overcoming the resistance of the rebel- 
lious squire. 

At last the church opens. The inside is remark- 
able for its extreme simplicity : no statues, no pic- 
tures, not even a cross. There are some races who 
seem to believe through their eyes ; but the Anglo- 
Saxon tribe, on the contrary, declines the intervention 
of the senses in performing their religious duties. 
They distrust the seductions of external Jbeauty, and, 
following the very expression of one of the reformers, 
they close their eyes and ears to the perfidious beau- 
ties of the siren. One of the heaviest reproaches 



BELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 43 

which the English Protestants bring against our 
churches is, that they resemble a theatre. The 
ancient edifices have been, in England, purified of 
every trace of superstition, — that is, have been de- 
prived of the images that filled them. The severe 
simplicity of the pointed arches, supported at inter- 
vals on thick pillars, is only modified in some cases 
by the gay colour of the painted glass, and by plates 
of brass curiously engraved, marking out the ancient 
tombs. These old churches were for a long time 
used as a sort of Necropolis. Charles Dickens de- 
clares that they are redolent of the dead, and that 
one sneezes in them from sniffing up the dust of past 
generations. This is not, however, the case in most 
of the country churches, where, in the summer time, 
there comes in through the opened doors the sweet 
perfume of the meadows and the newly-mown grass. 
Protestantism, in grafting its Liturgy on the 
ancient Catholic edifices, has altered the arrangement 
of the seats or pews, which now invade almost the 
whole of the church, converging round the pulpit. 
From this feature, who would not at once recognise 
a religion in great measure founded on oral ad- 
dresses? The seats, enclosed in wooden compart- 
ments called pews, are assigned for the year to dif- 
ferent families by the churchwardens. The English 
love a home, even in God's house. Thus it was for- 
merly their custom to isolate themselves in groups 
or in families, by means of curtains shutting them 



U RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

out from the view of other persons. This system of 
individualism, or of separation, — opposed by many 
members of the clergy, as doing away with the idea 
of common prayer, aimed at in the Protestant ritual — 
has happily disappeared in most of the English 
churches. 

Another feature, which will strike a foreigner at 
first sight, is the absence of an Altar. It has been 
replaced by the Communion-table ; for to Protestant 
eyes the Communion is a symbol, and. scarcely a 
sacrament in our way of looking at it. The abolition 
of the Mass has been every where the starting-point 
of the religious reformation. The portion of this 
ceremony chiefly disliked by the Protestant divines 
was the sacrifice of a flesh-and-blood victim : the 
gloomy image of the slaughtered lamb brought back 
Christianity, they said, to the ancient forms of the 
Jewish and pagan worship. When the sacrifice was 
suppressed in England, the altar must necessarily 
fall too. 

The priest centers the reading-desk, and the ser- 
vice commences. Clothed in a long white surplice 
with floating sleeves, the shape of which has not been 
changed since the epoch of the Reformation, he reads 
in a loud voice the morning service in the Book of 
Common Prayer. This service is naturally in Eng- 
lish, for the Protestant addresses his God in his 
national tongue only. The minister's voice alternates 
with that of the congregation, who respond according 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 45 

to the forms of the rubric Even' now and then 
sacred singing, accompanied by the deep tones of the 
organ, soars up to the vaulted roof. The officiating 
minister also reads some passages of the Scriptures. 
The attention of the bishops and the press has been 
much drawn of late in England to the elocution of 
young ministers. A clear pronunciation and a good 
delivery is a great means of influence over the masses 
with the clergy across Channel. A peasant, struck 
with the way in which his minister acquitted himself 
of this part of his duty, once let fall the naive re- 
mark: " Why, he reads the Bible as if he'd written 
it !" At a certain part of the service the priest 
leaves the reading-desk and goes into the chancel, to 
read from thence the Ten Commandments and the 
Nieene Creed, forming the commencement of the 
Communion Service. 

People in France would be astonished at the 
English considering themselves really Catholic, and 
tlic more so that they add no modification to the ex- 
pression. The two words Roman Catholic, according 
to their idea, present to the mind a contradiction : 
for one cannot be at the same time both universal 
and local. That which we call the Catholic Church 
is known in England under the name of the Church 
of Rome, which mode of faith, as well as the Eastern 
Church, forms a branch only of Catholicity in gene- 
ral. Our Protestant neighbours will not accord to 
any of these branches, or separate churches, a charac- 



46 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

ter of infallibility, any more than they claim it for 
themselves. All may have points of error ; and the 
Church of Rome, they say, has less than any other 
shown herself to be removed from all danger of 
fallacy. They reserve the name of the Church, in the 
more general sense of the word, to the general com- 
munity of Christians spread over the whole earth, 
who, belonging to whatever branch they may, are 
members of one great universal family. The more 
any object is independent of party spirit and separate 
from any particular religious interest, the more it 
merits, in the eyes of enlightened Englishmen, the 
epithet of Catholic. One can thus understand how 
their creed has preserved the idea of a universal 
Church, and at the same time thrown aside any 
bond of dependence on any foreign power. 

After having recited — still wearing his surplice — 
the prayers appointed to be read in the chancel, the 
officiating minister proceeds into the pulpit, now clad 
in a long black gown, and there commences his ser- 
mon. English preachers are more in the habit of 
addressing themselves to the mind and to the reason 
than to the feelings. Little gesticulation, a written 
sermon, and a high inculcation of moral duties, are 
the principal features of an eloquence which well suits 
the sedate character of the nation. What moral effect, 
then, it will be asked, can be produced on the con- 
science by rites so simple, and by this vigorous and 
yet polished discourse ? I will not assert that all are 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



4 7 



equally struck by them. Au anecdote showing this 
is told of a shopkeeper who attended every Sunday 
the service at his parish church, and yet made no 
scruple of cheating his customers. On one occasion 
lie was reproached with his duplicity, and was re- 
minded of a sermon of the minister's on the import- 
ance of commercial honesty. "It is all very well," 
replied he, "to believe these things one day in the 
week, especially as there arc six other days to forget 
them in, and to do quite the contrary." It is, how- 
ever, certain that in the country districts the Protes- 
tant Church, with her meagre ceremonies and her 
somewhat stern teaching, manages to imprint on the 
hearts of the rural population a religious ideal which 
all the friction of daily working life does not easily 
efface. 

The reformed Church in England recognises two 
sacraments only — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
Baptism is not often administered to the children of 
Protestants until three weeks or a month after their 
birth. A wish for the preservation of health has 
perceived the inexpediency of exposing them too 
soon in the open air ; and certain proceedings, which 
were followed with fatal consequences, have quite 
lately excited the indignation of our neighbours 
against the very different custom in the Church of 
Rome. The Lord's Supper is administered in the 
churches on the first Sunday in the month, and on 
some of the principal feasts. All the communicants 



48 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

partake of both elements ; for the claim to the cup 
by the laity has formed in England, as well as in 
Germany, one of the chief complaints of the religions 
reformers against the priestly privileges of the ancient 
faith. English divines do not believe in Transub- 
stantiation. In their opinion the bread remains 
bread and the wine remains wine whilst in the hands 
of the priest ; but they believe nevertheless that they 
partake in a spiritual sense of the flesh and blood 
of Jesus Christ. The other sacraments have been 
abolished, or converted into mere religious cere- 
monies. The confessional is among the number of 
the things which have been done away with ; but it 
still, in the country, inspires a kind of Puritan hor- 
ror. On this point each one has to judge and try 
himself in all the actions of his life. Man being 
no longer confessed, absolved, or justified by man, 
is compelled from his own internal perception to 
shape out for himself a conscience, or a system of 
moral responsibility of his own. From this point 
of view, at least, Protestantism is a manly religion, 
which sanctions the sovereignty of self -dependence, 
even as regards God and eternity. The English 
Church still intervenes in burials, although she has 
long since given up the belief in the efficacy of 
prayers for the dead. What good, then, is there in 
offering up these services ? It will be stated, among 
other reasons, that they are an honour rendered to 
the deceased. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 49 

It is the custom in certain districts for the farmers 
to accompany the funerals on horseback, clothed in 
loner black mantles, and with their hats covered with 
ornaments of crape. These processions, or, to speak 
more correctly, gloomy cavalcades, produce a singular 
effect while passing between the green hedge-rows, 
covered with wild creepers and the flowering haw- 
thorn. Slowly and silently they creep along : the 
countenances are sad, but resigned; for the English 
submit with a sort of pride to that which is irrevo- 
cable. All the way, the bell tolls at intervals in 
the church-tower. On the arrival of the cortege M 
the churchyard gate, the farmers dismount, and the 
gravel in the pathway soon grates under both the 
heavy boots of the mourners and the slow and mea- 
sured steps of those who carry the coffin. They 
thus approach the entrance of the church, where the 
minister comes forward, with his head uncovered, to 
meet the coffin. The funeral service, which then 
begins, has been arranged so as both to instruct and 
console the living. In it the voice of the psalmist 
tells them that they shall one day fade away like the 
grass of the field, and that man walketh in a vain 
shadow upon the earth, and that he heapeth up riches 
without knowing who shall o;athcr them. This imagery 
tells us only of our nothingness ; but the lesson, 
taken from an epistle of St. Paul, soon sheds a ray 
of immortality on the darkness of the grave. There 

is besides no singing, no funereal hangings, nothing 

E 



50 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

indeed which can in any way strike the eyes or affect 
the imagination ; it is throughout the same immaterial 
style of worship, which addresses only the faith or 
the intellect. 

The cortege then leaves the church, and following 
the clergyman bends its way towards that part of the 
churchyard where the grave has been dug before- 
hand. The latter is edged with planks, to make the 
opening firm all round. In front of this " open mouth, 
which swallows irp, one after another, all the genera- 
tions of mankind," the priest recites some solemn 
sentences. u In the midst of life," he cries, " we are 
in death." Then, just as some handfuls of earth are 
let fall at intervals with a dull sound on the coffin, 
now let down into the bottom of the grave, the priest 
pronounces with a solemn voice, " We therefore com- 
mit his body to the ground ; earth to earth, ashes to 
ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the 
resurrection to eternal life." The relations and 
friends afterwards come forward to the frame of 
planks, so as to cast a last look on the coffin be- 
fore it is covered up by the grave-digger ; it is an 
adieu for eternity. While this is going forward, the 
minister withdraws, leaving the body in peace, whose 
soul he respects the individuality of, even in the sha- 
dows of death. 

In the country life of old England the Protestant 
religion is associated with some scenes more agree- 
able than the above; I am now especially thinking 



LELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 51 

of the Harvest-liorne. Every year, on tlie day fixed 
upon, they assemble in the church, about eleven in 
the morning, to celebrate a thanksgiving service. 
The labourers, preceded by a band of music, after- 
wards proceed to a tent set up in the middle of a 
field, in a favourable situation where the view ex- 
tends over a wide horizon. The country in Eng- 
land often preserves all the freshness of its beauty 
even in the month of August ; one might compare it 
to a fine strong girl, who was strikingly beautiful in 
early youth, and still keeps all the traces of it. It 
is generally less remarkable for any brilliant features 
in its scenery than for the abundance and rich variety 
of its details; and although more pretty than striking, 
it never fails to inspire the rustics with a kind of 
pride. After all, are not they the men who have 
made it what it is ? The mattock, the spade, and the 
plough have effected a change in the whole face of 
nature, softening down the steep declivities of the 
lulls, and changing the earth into a garden. Even 
the sheltering clumps of trees, where the rustling 
of the wind sounds in the branches, were planted 
by the hand of man to protect his husbandry. A 
rural banquet has been prepared by the land-owners 
and farmers of the district in the tent, which is orna- 
mented by garlands, and where also honourably 
figures a great golden sheaf, the produce of the 
harvest. One may very well imagine that there is 
no want of appetite ; for the English labourers are 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



strong and hearty sons of the soil, and have preserved 
in more than one respect the habits of the Homeric 
age. 

The rector generally presides at dinner, and first 
of all, standing up, says grace : " God be praised," 
says he, "for all these good things given for our 
use !" English Protestantism is no religion of fast- 
ing and mortification ; instead of abstaining from the 
good things of the earth, they like better to bless the 
hand that sends them. The guests, numbering about 
four or five hundred, are scarcely seated, before the 
rector plunges his formidable knife into a monstrous 
joint of beef. The plates of meat come one after the 
other in such rapid succession and so heavily laden, 
that any less solidly constructed table would give way 
groaning under such a burden. Good cheer and 
merry talk are very apt to dispose the heart to grati- 
tude ; and thus the quality of the crops, and the good 
Providence that ripened them, are talked of with a 
kindly thankfulness. When the attack on the meat 
is finished — and the labourers go at it with no slack 
hand — there is a delay of a minute or two for the 
second course. A party of ladies, about sixty in 
number, preceded by the same band of music which 
accompanied the procession before at going out of 
church, now come in at the two openings of the tent, 
and walk up along the tables in single file, each 
carrying a smoking plum-pudding, ornamented with 
flowers and sprigs of holly ; the wife and daughters 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 53 

of the rector often figuring in this procession. The 
plum-puddings having disappeared, four men bring in 
on their shoulders an immense loaf made out of the 
wheat of the harvest, and place it with some cere- 
mony before the president. One of the guests — some 
lusty farmer — one foot on the table, and one on his 
seat, cuts vigorously into this Pantagruelic mass of 
food, and at the same moment a cheese is brought 
in, a worthy brother of the huge loaf, and very little 
inferior to it in bulk. 

At the conclusion of the feast, the labourers dis- 
perse over a piece of ground, got ready beforehand, 
and give themselves up to various games and athletic 
sports. It must be confessed that the English have 
not much idea of amusement ; with them pleasure 
seems chiefly to consist in action. This simplicity is 
so grounded in their character, that it pervades their 
whole mode of life. In the country especially, any of 
the arts or refinements of luxury are, even in rich 
families, something of a foreign importation. Just in 
the same way as he is so easily amused, the Anglo- 
Saxon peasant, in spite of his rough outside, is 
worked upon without difficulty, and it is thus ex- 
plained how it is that he is deeply moved by a wor- 
ship so closely resembling nature, without any need 
for having recourse to outward pomp and striking 
dramatic effects. Joy in the triumph of physical 
force, the happiness of meeting together to thank 
Him who gilds the ears of corn in the furrows ; such 



54 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

are the main features in the religious character of 
this rural fete. In the field devoted to play, another 
tent is put up for the wives and daughters of the 
labourers. Four or five hundred j)eople assemble 
there about four in the afternoon for tea. Members 
of Parliament and the clergy, together with the best 
families in the neighbourhood, are all happy to assist 
in these interesting reunions, in which intellect and 
wealth meet to do honour to agricultural labour. 

The rector or vicar is entirely the master of the 
church ; but it would be a mistake to look upon it as 
placed under his. absolute authority. There is no- 
thing of this kind in England. On the contrary, each 
parish is like a little commonwealth, governed by 
itself. The due division of power, duties, and work, 
is no less strictly defined there than it is in the na- 
tional constitution itself. In the first place, at the 
very side of the church there is often a Methodist 
chapel. There are then here two centres at least 
to which may converge some of the nobler senti- 
ments of social life. There may very often be in 
some obscure corner of the village a meeting-house 
for Quakers; a small antiquated cottage, cleanly 
whitewashed and festooned with honeysuckle and 
vine ; and looked after with sedulous care by some 
ao-ed sister of the sect. The divisions between the 
Established Church and the Dissenting congregation 
in the country do not so much rest on any very grave 
differences in point of faith ; not the less, however, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



do they all make a point of following out the usages 
of their worship with a fidelity which one might call 
the point of honour of conscience. Most of these sects 
have taken their rise in some old theological dispute, 
which would not perhaps have arisen in these times ; 
but they now form the inheritance handed down from 
a past age, which the English will not easily get rid 
of. Some of them certainly supply a want ; different 
minds, as St. Paul intimates, require different nutri- 
ment, and these chapels have been founded in order to 
satisfy this variety in spiritual tastes. All Dissenters 
are, however, compelled to pay church-rates, and 
they murmur at it, for in this way they are con- 
demned to pay twice, first to the church which they 
do not attend, and then to the particular chapel in 
winch they worship. The abolition of church-rates 
has been several times proposed in the House of Com- 
mons, but hitherto without success. 

As the law actually stands, this impost constitutes 
a charge on Dissenters which is very difficult to jus- 
tify ; but, at any rate, it gives them some privileges. 
One of these privileges consists in the right of attend- 
ing at vestry meetings. In these meetings, which take 
place several times in the year, and are announced 
by notices on the church-doors, all the questions are 
discussed which relate to the necessary expense of 
public worship, and to the repairs of the church itself. 
The head of the local opposition is usually some 
wealthy farmer or shopkeeper, an obstinate-minded 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



man, bred up in all the principles of dissent, and 
proud of pitting church against chapel. The self- 
esteem of the clergyman may often be wounded bv 
the freedom of speech which takes place ; yet who 
would wish to do away with it ? One good reason 
why the English manage their national affairs so well 
is that they have been wise enough to place the right 
of contradiction at the very base of their social 
edifice. 

Parish matters oftentimes give rise to dissensions 
between the different parties, and call forth certain 
exaggerations of eloquence which might well provoke 
a smile ; these centres of agitation, however, help to 
break the monotony of country life. Nearly all the 
opinions of large cities are found represented in Eng- 
lish villages. In one of them I met a free-thinker in 
the shape of an old man grafting his own fruit-trees, 
and studying devotedly various scientific works. His 
house, planted on the top of a hill, with a row of 
windows along the upper story commanding all the 
valley round, and flanked with a tower, the remains 
of an old windmill, was looked upon by all the good 
people of the neighbourhood with a sort of supersti- 
tious terror. It was, they said, the abode of an infidel 
— an epithet they are here rather too fond of giving 
to any one who does not attend a place of worship. 
A case like this of isolation in religious matters is 
rather uncommon from another cause : if you wish 
to obtain any influence in rural England, you must 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 57 

belong either to the national church, or at any rate 
to some other religions community. An Englishman 
who had very independent ideas, but was not the less 
a believer in a certain point of view, replied to some 
one who inquired as to his religious views, " The 
chapel to suit me is not built yet ; when it is, I shall 
go there." 

The great event at the vestry meetings, taking 
place every year daring Easter week, is the election 
of the parish officers.* The village authorities consist 
of the churchwardens, the overseers, the constables, and 
the way-wardens or road-surveyors. All these offices, 
excepting perhaps the constable's, bring no pay to 
their possessors except the honour of holding them ; 
they are not, however, the less sought after. In 
some villages the elections pass off Aery peaceably: 
in others, on the contrary, they excite an active and 
bitter rivalry. Both of the two parties declare that 
the fate of England depends on their success. This 
strong feeling, however, soon cools down alter the 
result of the voting is announced, and the next day 
the village returns to its usual state of quiet. 

The clerk and the sexton are persons who arc more 
specially attached to the service of the church, and 
are directly appointed by the vicar or rector. The 
clerk, who very often carries on some manual occu- 



* The electors are composed of the contributors to the paro- 
chial rates ; for in England property is the root of all power, civil 
and religious. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



pation iii the neighbourhood, is appointed to lead the 
responses to the minister during the celebration of 
divine service. The sexton is the remains of an an- 
cient and now disused office. As the name indicates, 
he formerly performed the functions of sacristan, that 
is, he had the care of the sacred vessels committed to 
him. The Reformation, of course, very much sim- 
plified the appurtenances of worship, and therefore 
took away many of his prerogatives ; and the super- 
vision of the vestry, which was not very important, 
was made over to the clerk. The sexton's employ- 
ment is now limited to sweeping out the church and 
digging the graves. But I must not forget the bell- 
ringer, who, nearly as old as the steeple, presents in 
some villages a rather curious specimen. Having 
rung-in all the joys and sorrows of life, he turns 
philosopher on becoming a widower, and, with a pot 
of beer in Iris hand, consoles himself with reflecting 
on the vanity of worldly matters, such as marriages 
and burials. 

The two churchwardens, one of whom is chosen 
by the vestry, the other being generally nominated 
by the rector or vicar, enjoy some considerable au- 
thority in the management of the fabric. They have 
to assign to each family their position in the interior 
of the church — rather a dangerous honour, gener- 
ally bringing on all kinds of jealousies in the parish. 
It very often happens that the number of pews is 
scarcely sufficient for the parishioners ; in that case, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 59 

the poor are ranged on wooden benches — in some 
churches with the men on one side, and the women 
on the other — along the aisles of the building. The 
poor do not say much ; but they are not the less 
wounded in their dignity as human beings by this 
distinction in the house of that God u who is no 
respecter of persons." The churchwardens also exer- 
cise a certain control over the conduct and doctrines 
of the minister. The latter, as we have seen, has 
but little to dread from ecclesiastical authority ; but 
he has a good deal to answer for to his congregation. 
The present constitution of the Anglican Church 
allows either rectors or vicars to have a great liberty 
in religious opinions ; it would scarcely be believed 
that the restraining power rests principally with the 
parishioners themselves. It is true that the laity can 
only exercise over the minister the right of moral 
intervention ; in case of need, their resistance could 
only be passive ; but still, even this would oppose an 
effectual barrier against certain rationalistic tenden- 
cies. The intimate alliance which exists between the 
State and the Church may thus be said to have taken 
its rise from a much deeper source ; namely, the 
constant relations subsisting between the clergy and 
the nation at large. The national religion is watched 
over as an inheritance by all classes of society, espe- 
cially in the country. Two or three years ago, the 
minister of an English church addressed a touching 
letter to his churchwardens, announcing his voluntary 



GO RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

resignation of a living that he had held for many 
years. With the lapse of time, he said, his ideas 
had changed, and as a minister of religion he still 
found himself faced by fixed dogmas, with a Prayer- 
book consecrated by custom, and also with a congre- 
gation who had the right to look to him for a line of 
instruction conformable to the doctrines of the Angli- 
can Church ; his position in his pulpit was no longer 
tenable, and he therefore abandoned it. When a 
clergyman secedes from the Established Church for 
any such scruples, it is very rarely that he unites 
himself to any other religious sect ; for by doing this 
he would only bind his chains the closer, as most of 
the dissenting bodies keep quite as closely as church 
people to the letter of the Bible. 

The direction of all the parochial charities belongs 
in the country chiefly to the incumbent. The Eng- 
lish, except in certain extraordinary cases, are not at 
all partial to the system of direct relief; in their idea, 
the greatest service they can render the poorer classes 
is to teach them how to do without public relief 
The question is then to find some means of disguising 
charity, and one of these means is the principle of 
association based on sure grounds. In almost all 
the villages of England* there are clubs, which are 
at once funds for assistance and banks for savings. 
Each of these clubs consists both of honorary and 
participating members. The former contribute some 
particular amount from which they never look for 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 61 



any personal advantage — it is a free gift on their 
part: the latter, on the contrary, receive in kind the 
value of their club-payment, and benefit besides by 
the generosity of the former. By thus calling on 
the poor to cooperate with the rich, they are able to 
relieve poverty without wounding the personal dig- 
nity of any.* The agricultural labourers derive more 
than one kind of advantage from this system of asso- 
ciation : the club buys its goods wholesale, and sells 
them at cost price, and can thus give them much 
cheaper bargains than the shops. These material 
results are, however, not of much consequence, com- 
pared with the habits of order and foresight which 
such institutions imprint on the character of the 
rural labourer. There certainly is a portion of the 
funds in the club cash-box which has been provided 
by charity, but it is mixed up with the produce of 
their personal labour and economy. In these works 
of charity the minister readily makes use of female 
assistance. His daughters give a noble example, 



* In the village to which my observation was more particularly 
drawn, which contains a population of about 1700 inhabitants, 
the Coal- Club had received in money, from March 1st, 18G3, to 
March 1st. 1864, the sum of 85Z. 18s. Gd., and it had distributed 
nearly this amount in coal to the agricultural labourers. The 
Adult Clothing- Club had contributed more than 801. towards 
the attire of the men and women. The Children's Clothing-Club 
had provided garments to the value of 221. for those of whom it is 
said in the Evangelist, Sinite parvulos venire ad me. The Shoe- 
Club had delivered in this same year 148 pairs of shoes, having 
received as deposits and subscriptions the sum of 31?. 



62 RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 

and thus draw round them the patronage of the 
wealthy. 

All the clergymen that I have talked to on the 
matter attribute the success of these institutions to the 
absence of any principle of authority. In the first 
place, Government must have nothing to do with it, 
or all would be spoilt ; even the surveillance of the 
minister must be in some way hidden under the or- 
ganisation of the club. It is by far the best plan for 
him to keep in the background, and to leave the 
poor to manage their business for themselves, and 
thus to accustom them to the exercise of their rights. 
Direction is not management, and there is in tins a 
delicate shade that, in practice, must never be lost 
sight of. The science of doing good requires, then, 
on the part of the parson both intelligence and expe- 
rience ; nothing is easier than mere giving, but any 
material help has often the effect of only impoverish- 
ing the recipient by taking away his self-reliance. 
Every tiling, on the contrary, that tends to elevate 
the individual, and to augment his moral force, by 
communicating to him a just idea of his real inter- 
ests, is so much added to his means of livelihood. 
True charity, in the English idea, is that which pro- 
cures for the poor advantages which .they have every 
right to look upon as in a great measure their own 
work. 

Some country clergymen are in the habit of en- 
couraging other social meetings among their people, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 03 

as well as those institutions just spoken of; for ex- 
ample, tea parties. Taking advantage of the influ- 
ence which tlie friendly beverage of China exercises 
on English habits, they have established in some vil- 
lages meetings of from two to three hundred people, 
which take place in the corner of a wood, perhaps, in 
summer, and in winter in the school-room. The in- 
tention of these love-feasts, as they may be called, is 
not difficult to be seen ; the ministers of the Church 
have in view to bring together in this way the vari- 
ous ranks and conditions of society. The expense is 
slight, and accessible to every purse ; sixpence for 
grown-up people, and threepence for children. They 
meet only for amusement ; but the gentle manners 
and good example of some among them exercise a 
happy influence on the general tone of their enter- 
tainment. While the kettles full of boiling water hiss 
and sing, general conversation goes on, and the dif- 
ferent classes of society get both to know and esteem 
each other better. 

English peasants are generally robust, and it is 
almost necessary that their spare energy should be 
thrown into some manly exercise ; when left to them- 
selves, or badly directed, they are apt at times to 
disturb the peaceable lives of the inhabitants of the 
village. In order to get over this difficulty, some 
ministers have hit upon the plan of arranging a sys- 
tem of athletic sports ; they have formed clubs, hold- 
ing their meetings sometimes in the open air, and 



64 RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 

i 

sometimes in a large room, where violence may learn 
to be held in check by skill. The field-labourers 
used to have no medical assistance in time of ill- 
ness except nature or the quack ; now, the sick-club, 
founded in many villages, affords them, in return for 
a small weekly subscription, all the benefits of a man 
of skill and his remedies. All these arrangements 
are, however, conducted on the same principle : the 
moral force which gives the primary impulse is but 
little seen, and, above all, never seeks to get the 
upper hand. 

The life of an English parson is quite sufficiently 
occupied. Two services and two sermons on the 
Sunday; during the week there are the sick to be 
visited, meetings to preside over, parishioners to be 
entertained, and the general interests of the Church 
to be watched over : all this does not form a sine- 
cure. It is true that some incumbents content them- 
selves with doing their duty in their pulpits, and 
then withdrawing into the learned leisure of their com- 
fortable homes ; but these men are little liked, and 
scarcely exercise any influence at all in the parish 
generally. The peasants love a clergyman who will 
come sometimes and sit down by their fire-sides, who 
talks to them about their daily work, who kindly 
draws between his knees the fair -haired little ones, 
and seems to forget, while among them, all his dig- 
nity as a priest in his recollections as a father. The 
great character of English Protestantism is the im- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



planting of religious feeling round the domestic 
hearth ; and there, above all places, is the feeling 
most strong, because it is most natural. It is true 
that religious belief does not proclaim itself here by 
any external signs ; it is in the heart and not on the 
walls ; yet it seems like a kind of Bible-perfume fill- 
ing the whole house. These pastoral visits afford 
great pleasure, and while they last the cricket itself 
chirps more proudly in the chimney corner. A false 
idea of personal dignity, and of the respect which 
is due to a gentleman, has been the stumbling-block 
of many a promising character that has entered or- 
ders. Some ministers keep at too great a distance 
from their parishioners ; stiff and reserved in their 
manners, they can easily command an outward re- 
spect, but they can acquire neither the esteem nor 
the confidence of the great mass of the people, who 
indeed scarcely know them. 

In many places the parsons are justices of the peace 
as well ;* this mixture of duties is more injurious 
than beneficial to the Church. The English clergy 
can never, in the present day, much extend their in- 
fluence by means of authority ; tolerance and kindness 
are the things they must look to. There is one other 
duty which assimilates much more fittingly with the 
pastoral prerogative, I mean the surveillance of the 



* From a report made to Parliament, there are in England 
and Wales 1 183 clergymen exercising the duties of magistrates. 



66 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

schools. There are now few villages where there is 
not by the side of the Church a building more or less 
modern, with something of an attempt at looking like 
gothic architecture. In the former edifice Protes- 
tantism worships God; in the latter she instructs 
childhood. 



CHAPTER III. 

The schoohs— Infant school — National school and Sunday-school 
— Andrew Bell — Joseph Lancaster — The system of mutual 
instruction — The National Society — The British and Foreign 
Schools Society — Reasons for the antagonism of these two 
institutions — The llevised Code — Objections to which it has 
given rise — Causes for the complaints and grievances of the 
Clergy — General views of the Government — Who nominates 
the Schoolmaster? — Progress of education in England since 
the commencement of the Nineteenth Century — Bond of 
union between the Church and the school. 

The village in which I passed some time possessed 
two schools; one, the Infant School, situated on a 
little hill in the centre of a piece of greensward. 
The building is a new one, and consists of a large 
room with a small apartment by the side, and a 
vestibule. Inside it very much resembles a chapel. 
The walls, whitewashed with lime, and decorated 
with coloured engravings, support a vaulted ceiling 
with oak wainscoting and beams, ornamented with 
carving. A hundred and ten children of tender 
years are received here in the day-time ; this room 
partakes, therefore, of the nature both of a school 
and of a nursery, like those in which the children of 



68 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

the wealthier classes are brought up. There are two 
mistresses, one of whom is salaried, and the other 
gives her services gratuitously. The first is quite 
a young girl ; the latter is a lady in black, who has 
a little the appearance and costume of a religieuse ; 
and she it is who does almost every thing in the 
school. The Protestant religion inspires a devotion 
of this kind. 

The assemblage of all these children of both sexes, 
seated on the benches, and, so to speak, sloped off 
according to their ages, step by step, like little fruit- 
trees in blossom on the side of a hill, presents at 
first sight an interesting spectacle. The education is 
of course quite elementary : it is limited to communi- 
cating some few useful notions ; and in order to im- 
press them better, when they are required, both action 
and imitation are called in to assist. The children 
reply all together to the questions addressed to them 
by their mistress, clapping their little hands together, 
and measuring out their words in a kind of singing 
tone. The more advanced of them are also taught to 
read and write. They are divided into several classes, 
each bearing the name of some flower ; so that a little 
girl may be a violet, a rose, a daisy, or a geranium. 

The other school is the one for the older children, 
and is called the National School.* It is separated 



* At the Infant School the children pay 1^. a-week ; at the 
National School 2d. a-week. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 69 

from the church by the vicar's house, and is sur- 
rounded by a playground. This kind of family union 
between the parsonage and the school is not, how- 
ever, peculiar to the Established Church ; there is 
scarcely a dissenting chapel which does not shelter 
under its wing a hive-full of buzzing children. Daily 
classes are held in the national school, attended by a 
hundred and thirty pupils, and evening classes, in 
which about thirty adults generally take a part. The 
master gets SOI. a year from the parish, and about 251. 
from the government, without reckoning 10Z. for the 
instruction of six pupil-teachers. He has besides a 
house and garden provided for him. 

The Sunday-school is also held in the same build- 
ing as that which is devoted to the weekly scholars. 
The origin of this institution is rather interesting. 
The first Sunday-school was opened in 1781 by Ro- 
bert Raikes, a bookseller, who assembled together in 
the crypt of Gloucester Cathedral some poor chil- 
dren whom he collected out of the street. He was at 
the same time publishing a newspaper ( The Gloucester 
Journal), and he made use of this organ for propa- 
gating in England his ideas about a work to which 
he rightly attached no small importance.* The pro- 



* He was helped and inspired in his work by the Rev. T. Stock, 
curate of St. John's at Gloucester. Behind the altar of this church 
there is the following inscription on a marble monument put up 
by the subscriptions of the inhabitants : " To the memory of the 



70 RELIGIOUS LTFE IN ENGLAND. 

gress made by these institutions was really bor- 
dering on the marvellous ; and at the present time, 
Sunday-schools are spread like a network over, 
not only England, but even Scotland and Ireland. 
Sunday, which is usually considered a day of rest, 
is, on the contrary, with our neighbours a very 
busy day. The clergyman's daughter, or some other 
educated person, willingly presides at these schools, 
either in the morning or between the services. The 
instruction given in them chiefly touches on religious 
subjects, and, pushing aside the obscuring brambles 
of theology, opens out a few simple views through 
the seemingly mysterious forest of the Scriptures. 
The lessons are all gratuitous, and many of the 
youthful poor, occupied all the week in hard work, 
have but this one tie to unite them to the ideal 
world. At the very least, they learn to read the 
Bible and to think a little about it. The Anglican 
Church has the good quality of 'appealing first of all 
to the intellect. She asks an active and not a 
passive reception of those doctrines which are sub- 
sequently to form the foundation of an intelligent 
belief; for Protestants are bound to think before 
they believe. 

Finally, during the winter evenings public lec- 
tures are held in the National school, and bring to- 



Rev. Thomas Stock, rector of this parish, who, in concert with 
Mr. Raikes, established and maintained the four first Sunday- 
schools instituted in England. He died in 1803." 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 71 

gether an audience of from eighty to a hundred and 
fifty persons, the vicar himself being one of the lec- 
turers. We may conclude as pretty certain that, for 
a village of seventeen hundred inhabitants, the means 
of instruction are sufficiently abundant. 

The National schools take the place of those which 
we call in France the faoles primaires. They owe 
their origin to a minister of the Anglican Church, 
Dr. Andrew Bell, born at St. Andrews in Scotland. 
After having passed a good examination at the uni- 
versity in his native city, Andrew Bell embarked 
for America in 1774 ; five years later he left New 
York to return to England. The voyage was a dis- 
astrous one : the vessel ran ashore on a desert coast, 
and, as it was winter time, the passengers found 
themselves exposed, without shelter, to the frost and 
snow. The only trace of habitation they met with 
was a fisherman's hut in ruins, which they discovered 
towards the south-west. Andrew Bell had little hopes 
of surviving the shipwreck ; he was, however, saved 
by a small boat which came along the coast, and 
which brought him to Halifax, after sixteen days of 
terrible sufferings. He re-embarked, and this time 
arrived safely at 'his port in England. 

After some years of a wandering and adven- 
turous life, during which he travelled about the 
country, sometimes on horseback and sometimes on 
foot, he received holy orders, and was instituted as 
minister of the episcopal chapel at Leith. This quiet 



f 

72 RELTGIOUS LTFE IN ENGLAND. 



position was very little to his taste ; and he left it, to 
travel in the East Indies. The 2d of June 1787 he 
arrived at Madras, from whence he at length made 
his way to Calcutta. During his journey he had 
endeavoured to fill bis purse by giving lectures — 
a rather favourite resource with educated English- 
men who are seeking their fortunes. Having been 
subsequently appointed Superintendent of the Mili- 
tary Orphan Asylum at Madras, he devoted himself 
altogether to the duties of his office. The plans for 
teaching were then very imperfect, and Andrew Bell, 
having his mind confused with doubts, sought on all 
sides for some ray of decisive light; when, passing 
one evening on horseback by a Hindoo school, he 
espied the children sitting on the ground, and trac- 
ing letters with their fingers on the dust that was 
spread out before them. He returned home, exclaim- 
ing, as others have done before him, " I've found it 
out !" Andrew Bell then recommended to his under- 
master to adopt this plan in teaching the alphabet to 
the English scholars in the lowest class. 

The discovery did not seem to be so useful a one 
as he had thought ; for, either from disinclination or 
negligence, the under-master made it known to him 
that it was impossible to teach any thing to the 
children in this fashion. Andrew Bell was not the 
sort of man to give any thing up (he was not born 
in Scotland for nothing); he selected one of the 
pupils of the asylum,— the son of a private soldier, — 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 73 



and intrusted to him the execution of his plan. The 
scholar managed without any difficulty that which 
the professor had declared to be impossible. Learn- 
ing to read and write was, up to that time, a serious 
matter of state ; in future, thanks to this plan, it was 
nothing but child's play. Dr. Bell, seeing that this 
experiment had succeeded so well, conceived the idea 
of choosing out some of the best of the pupils, and 
employing them as monitors to instruct the others. 
Thus by his painstaking was formed the system of 
mutual instruction, or pupil-teachers. He afterwards 
formed the plan of returning to England, in order to 
propagate his ideas there. After his arrival in Lon- 
don, where he married, he exercised for many years 
an important influence on rudimentary education in 
the kingdom, and died in 1830, prodigiously rich, 
leaving the greatest part of his fortune to the schools 
and towns of Scotland. 

There was living at the same time another man 
of a very different character, although devoted to the 
same line of inquiry »and labour. His name was 
Joseph Lancaster. He was born in 1778, in South- 
wark, and belonged to the sect of Quakers, or, more 
properly, the Society of Friends. His father, a 
veteran in the Military Hospital at Chelsea, had 
served in the English army during the American 
war. From the earliest age Joseph showed all the 
excitability of a mystical intellect ; at fourteen years 
of age, having read by accident Clarkson's Essay on 



74: RELIGIOUS LIFE EN ENGLAND. 

■ le Slave- Trade, he made up his mind to go to 
Jamaica, in order to teach the negroes to read ;; the 
Word of God. v Without inentionino; it to anv one. 
he lefr his paternal roof and took the road to Bristol. 
having as baggage nothing but a Bible. John Bunyan's 
PUgrinCs Progress, and a few shillings. The first 
night lie slept under a hedge, and the second at the 
foot of a hay-rick. He had the good fortune to meet 
on the road a workman who was likewise going to 
Bristol: so they travelled together, and the elder 
was able to render assistance to the younger. TThen 
Joseph arrived at his place of destination, he found 
himself without either money or shoes. He entered 
himself as a volunteer in the navy, and was sent off 
the next day to Milford Haven. On board his ship 
•he was bantered on account of the religious tone of 
his mind, and got from his messmates the nickname 
of Parson. One Sunday when the captain was away.* 
the officers came and found Joseph Lancaster, and 
asked him if he could preach them a sermon. The 
youth only asked for half an hour for reflection, and 
to read his Bible. When he reappeared on deck, 
they arranged a barrel to seiwe as a pulpit, and the 
-hip'- crew assembled round the young preacher. 
He began by reproaching the rough sailors with then 
evil wavs. and he was at first received oniv with 



* It must be understood that in English vessels the captain 
sometimes fills the office of chaplain. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 75 

jeers ; but his rough and vigorous eloquence, nurtured 
by the reading of the Old and New Testament, soon 
prevailed over the unfriendly disposition of his audi- 
ence. From this day forward he was no longer 
made fun of, but was treated with respect by the 
seamen. His family at last found out where he was, 
and obtained from the government a permission for 
him to return. 

At eighteen years of age, Joseph Lancaster 
opened a school in his father's house. Having fur- 
nished the benches and desks at his own expense, 
he assembled round him ninety children to share 
his teaching. It was then a period of scarcity (1798) ; 
as in the fable, the poor little grasshoppers of his 
school went about crying famine among the indus- 
trious ants of the neighbourhood ; touched with their 
distress, he interested several charitable persons in 
their favour, and managed to feed them as well as 
to teach them. At the door of his establishment he 
fixed a notice, couched in these words : " All those 
who wish may send their children to receive a gra- 
tuitous education. Those who would not like to have 
them taught gratis, are at liberty to pay, if they 
think fit." This notice had, at any rate, the effect 
of filling the school, but not by any means the purse 
of its master. Nevertheless, he extended his opera- 
tions on a great scale. " The little ones," said he, 
" came running to me like a flock of lambs." Some 
persons of influence, — among others, the Duke of 



76 RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLA1TO. 

Bedford and Lord Somerville, became interested in 
Joseph Lancaster's labours. The number of his 
pupils, however, increased to such an extent, that 
his means became quite unequal to the burden. Ne- 
cessity, which the English caU the mother of inven- 
tion, came to his aid, and pointed out to him a new 
path by which to attain his end. Having no money 
to pay under-master s with, he conceived the idea of 
multiplying himself by means of monitors. 

This system of mutual instruction was thus dis- 
covered, almost at the same moment, by two very 
different men, each acted upon by peculiar circum- 
stances. Andrew Bell commenced it in the Asylum 
at Madras, through a mistrust of routine, and Joseph 
Lancaster in his schools, from motives of economy.* 
The latter became so much talked about, and met 
with such great success in his plans, that Greorge 
III. manifested a desire to give him an audience. 
The interview took place in 1805, at Weymouth. 
"Lancaster," cried the king, "I hear that, in your 
schools, one master can teach five hundred scholars 
at once ; how does he manage to keep them in 
order?" "In the same way, sire, as your entire 
army is put in movement by one word of the general 
commanding it," replied the Quaker. George IIL 



* Both subsequently claimed the honour of this discovery, 
which has been for a long time either abandoned or much modified 
in England. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 



added: "I very much approve of your system, and 
my desire is that every poor child in my dominions 
shall learn to read the Bible." The king imme- 
diately sent him 100/., the queen 50/., and each of 
the princesses 25/., in order that he might spread 
the benefits of education according to his views. 
The example afforded by the Court at once opened 
up the sources of individual liberality, and money 
flowed into Lancaster's hands from all sides ; this, 
however, was his ruin. Excitable, enthusiastic as 
he was, and consumed with zeal for his work, he 
threw aside all prudent counsels, and very much 
exceeded the limit of his resources in the mainten- 
ance of his children, and thus got into debt. Friends 
came to his assistance, and several times got him 
out of his embarrassments ; but his prodigality to- 
wards others was quite incorrigible, and he always 
relapsed into the same pecuniary difficulties. 

His correspondence at this time shows him to us 
as, by turns, despondent or triumphant, and as pass- 
ing suddenly from the depths of melancholy to the 
pinnacle of hope. His mind being given up to all 
kinds of visionary ideas, he thought he saw " the 
horses of fire bringing to him from the mountains, 
in chariots of fire, all the riches of the earth," so 
as to preserve his system from irreparable ruin. Un- 
fortunately, debts cannot be paid with the gold of 
the Apocalypse, and the prophet more than once fell 
into the hands of the bailiffs. His Quaker friends, 



78 . EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

men devoted to order and commerce, who placed 
an almost religions importance on good book-keeping, 
ended by abandoning him, after having condemned 
his extravagance. In 1808 he was declared bank- 
rupt; he afterwards left for America, where also he 
passed through all kinds of trials. He was think- 
ing about returning to England, when, on the 23d 
of October 1838, he was crushed to death by a car- 
riage in the streets of New York, at the age of fifty- 
one years. 

These two men first gave rise to two societies 
having for their aim the instruction of youth, but 
with tendencies strongly opposed to one another. Dr. 
Bell gave his influence to the National Society^ and 
Joseph Lancaster gave his to the British and Foreign 
Schools Society. As these two centres of religious 
action have exercised, and still do exercise, a great 
influence over the management of rudimentary 
schools, it is necessary for us to dwell upon them 
for a short time. The National Society was founded 
in 1811, but it was scarcely developed until 1815, 
after the battle of Waterloo, when the benefits of 
the peace first began to call the public attention to 
the education of the poorer classes. Its affairs are 
managed by a committee, consisting of the whole 
bench of bishops, some of the highest ecclesiastical 
dignitaries, and several laymen enjoying distin- 
guished public esteem. All the subscribers of a 
guinea a-year, and those who have given ten guineas 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 79 

in one sum, are members of the society, and have 
the right of voting at the general meetings. The 
provincial councils of education, presided over by 
the bishop of the diocese, and situated in all parts 
of the kingdom, are connected with the central in- 
stitution, the offices of which are in Westminster. 

What, then, is the end aimed at by this society, 
based as it is upon active influences, and a mechan- 
ism as powerful as it is far-stretching ? Its. aim 
is to instruct the children of the working and agri- 
cultural classes in the principles of the Established 
Church. In following out these views, it first of 
all seeks to develop the means of education by in- 
creasing the number of schools. The various sums 
which it has drawn from its funds to assist in this 
measure in different localities, up to the end of 1864, 
amounted to a total of 389,964/. This society, how- 
ever, never grants money, except as an addition to 
other money ; that is, it requires from any locali- 
ties assisted a corresponding expenditure, and gene- 
rally, indeed, a larger sum than the assistance given. 
It is calculated, for example, that for the building 
only of schools devoted to elementary instruction, 
it has stimulated the country at large into expend- 
ing a sum at least three times as large as its own 
disbursements ; and besides, it imposes on each parish 
the charge of maintaining in repair and defraying 
the expenses of its school, when it is once built. In 
order to place a school of elementary instruction in 



80 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

a position of connection with the National Society, 
it is requisite that the directors or patrons of the 
establishment in question should subscribe to certain 
" terms of union ;" by which it is understood that 
they bind themselves to forward the views of the 
society in the religious education of youth. The 
number of schools in union with the National So- 
ciety had reached, at the end of 1864, a total of 
12,366, and these establishments received 1,172,306 
scholars.* 

This society is not satisfied with merely diffusing 
elementary instruction throughout the kingdom ; it 
busies itself, besides, in the education of instructors. 
With this view, it has under its immediate control 
five Normal schools, three of which are for young 
men, and two for young women, who aspire to the 
duties of teachers. From 1843 to 1863, no less than 
4,447 masters and mistresses have come from these 
academies. If we add to all this, the assistance 
furnished to the Normal schools in the various dio- 
ceses, the surveillance of the parish schools by the 
independent Government inspectors, and also that 
they keep a depot of books determining the orthodox 
type of elementary instruction throughout Great 
Britain, we can then form some idea of the power- 
ful influence exercised by the National Society, which 



* If the Sunday-schools are included, the number mounts up 
to 1,818,476 scholars. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 81 

has been rightly called, by one of the clergy indeed, 
" the handmaid of the Church." There are, though, 
some servants who are the mistresses. 

The British and Foreign Schools Society has the 
same end in view as the National Society, and this 
end is the instruction of youth ; but having been 
founded, in 1808, by the Dissenters, it embraces in 
its sphere of action all the various sects, or, as they 
are called in England, religious denominations. Quite 
different from its rival, this society imposes no obli- 
gation as to the form of religious belief in the pupils 
who are received into its schools. Instruction is 
there a kind of neutral ground, on which it is requi- 
site to treat with respect all distinctions of creed. 
Although she instils into youth certain general moral 
principles, she abstains from touching on the thorny 
points of dogmatism. The Bible is certainly per- 
mitted to be read in its schools, but it is because the 
Bible is a base of instruction recognised by universal 
consent in all Christian communities. 

The head-quarters of this society is in the Borough 
Road, in London, where they have built a stone edi- 
fice for their use in a rather good style. A general 
meeting, taking place every year in May, composed 
of all the members of the society, that is, all the 
subscribers of one guinea each, elect a president, 
vice-presidents, a treasurer, and secretaries. A com- 
mittee of forty-eight persons is also chosen to manage 
the affairs of the institution. This general committee 

G 



82 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

names a committee of twenty-four ladies to look after 
the education of the little girls. The income resulting 
from subscriptions, legacies, and donations, amounts 
to 13,868Z. a-year. Just like the National Society, 
the British and Foreign Schools Society founds, in- 
spects, and manages both normal schools and a great 
number of elementary schools. The only feature 
which distinguishes it from the system followed by 
the other institution, is the entire absence of any 
restriction in matters of belief; it imposes no condi- 
tion in rendering its services, and freely throws the 
light of elementary instruction on the children of the 
poorer classes. With respect to dissenting families, 
it thus assures to them every liberty of conscience, 
without, at the same time, giving up the right of 
forwarding a certain system of Christian proselytism. 
The task of the education of the people of Eng- 
land was thus, up to 1832, entirely borne by these 
two societies, and by a noble individual devotion aided 
by the offerings of the various parishes ; Government 
kept itself in the 'background. This is by no means 
the case at the present time. How, then, has the 
Government found itself able to interfere in the sys- 
tem of public instruction as regards the elementary 
schools ? Simply, by its right as a subscriber. The 
Government a subscriber ! This is an union of words 
which will perhaps astonish some of our French 
readers. No form of expression, however, can be 
more in accordance with the facts. In the first place, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 83 

Parliament voted several grants, which were to be 
distributed by the Department of Education, so as to 
forward certain local efforts in the formation of schools. 
Every parish that applied to the authorities for a 
grant of 'money was bound to have first themselves 
collected a sum equal to the help asked for. Before 
1852, the Government found itself face to face with 
the two old rival societies, one of which (the National 
Society) represented the Church, the other (the 
British and Foreign Schools Society) represented 
the dissenting body ; it readily availed itself of their 
ministration, and the grants of the Government gene- 
rally pass through the channel of these institutions. 
The alliance between Religion and Education was 
not, however, entirely severed ; it was requisite for 
a school to belong to some persuasion of belief, in 
order to enjoy the bounty of the national purse. 

The applications for grants flowed in, and the 
amount of them altogether rapidly rose to near upon 
1,000,000£. a -year. The economists began to be 
alarmed ; and on the other hand, certain members of 
the high church are now regretting that they have, 
as they say, bitten at the golden hook. But what 
can be the subject of their regret ? It is, that the i 
Government, though still keeping up its character as 
a subscriber, soon claimed the privilege which is 
never denied to private individuals in a similar case, 
when supplying funds for any charitable work ; who- 
ever gives is permitted to satfsfy himself personally 



84 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

that his money is well applied. The Privy Council, 
relying on this theory, imposed conditions on all those 
schools which accepted the assistance of Government. 
By degrees the system of studies was modified, and 
the ground-work of the instruction was modelled 
according to the views of various statesmen. The 
Council, for example, decided that the schoolmasters, 
instead of receiving a fixed salary, should, in future, 
be remunerated according to the work done. At the 
present time a portion of their income depends on 
the number of pupils attending their classes, and the 
success which these pupils obtain under examina- 
tion. Government inspectors come down to examine 
into the progress of the studies generally, and fix, 
according to the manifested exertions of the master, 
the amount of pecuniary recompense he deserves. 
Government wishes, as the phrase is, to have its value 
for its money ; and therefore, instead of paying for 
the means of education, it pays for the results. 

These changes were a great source of alarm to 
many of the clergy ; for it must be remembered that 
the incumbents were in the habit previously of taking 
the exclusive direction of the schools, especially in 
the country. It was not, therefore, without uneasi- 
ness, that they saw the control of the State gradually 
insinuating itself into the system of elementary in- 
struction, as a consequence of, and in right of, the 
assistance afforded. The Revised Code, — the name 
to the new regulations, — has been rather fa- 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 85 

mous in England for the objections it has called forth 
on the part of the Church. There is, without doubt, 
some exaggeration in these grievances; we cannot, 
however, fail to observe that the intention of Govern- 
ment has been to extend and not to elevate the level 
of education among the people in the various schools. 
The course of study conceived and carried out in 
some villages by certain clergymen, some time back, 
was far more liberal than the Privy Council pro- 
gramme.* 

Be that as it may, the action of the civil power 
in these matters has no resemblance whatever to that 
which we call State intervention. In the first place, 
this intervention can, in England, be freely rejected 
by renouncing the material advantages which it brings 
with it ; and in the next place, it does not at all 
do away with local self-government. Two forces are 
acting in concert in this matter, society in general 
and the parish, — that which we call in France la 
Commune. The system of voluntary contributions, 
when it works alone, has this inconvenience about it, 
that it liberally provides rich districts with the aid 
and assistance which is denied in poorer localities. 
This source of charity somewhat resembles those 
mountain torrents which are full enough in winter- 



* The teaching in these schools is at present limited to instruc- 
tion in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The course of study- 
traced out ahout 1859 by a few country rectors embraced several 
other branches of secular knowledge. 



86 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

time, when there is plenty of water everywhere, but 
which are dried np in the summer, when there is the 
most need for their supplies. At the present time, 
thanks to the distribution of the public grants, this 
inequality is much less observable, for elementary 
schools are now supported by three branches of in- 
come — the subscriptions of the parish, the payments 
of the children, and the subsidies of the Government, 
A section of the English clergy bring a special 
charge against the Government of having set a trap 
for them, and of having taken advantage of these 
grants in order to secularise elementary education. 
But what truth is there in this charge ? The Church 
and the Dissenters have an equal right to ask for the 
State subsidy, and their applications are received with 
an equal favour. There is no occasion for any diffi- 
culty in a district where there are a considerable 
number of Church people, and also a tolerably power- 
ful body of Dissenters ; in a case like this we find 
two schools established. It is very different from this, 
however, in a great many villages. The mass of 
wealth is generally found in the hands of those pro- 
fessing the established religion, while the Dissenters 
are usually not very rich ; and to obtain any assist- 
ance from the public exchequer, it is necessary for a 
congregation first to collect among themselves a sum 
of money which is very often much beyond their 
means. There is no other resource, therefore, for 
dissenting; families but to send their children to the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



parish school ; but this is a school belonging to the 
Church of England, and they can only be received 
there on sufferance. It must be acknowledged that 
most of the clergy are liberal enough in their views 
to receive into the fold these young wandering sheep ; 
yet the religious instruction, which is here inseparable 
from the secular teaching, brings with it more than 
one inconvenience. The Catechism and other for- 
mularies are taught in the parish school ; and this 
course of instruction sometimes excites the secret 
alarm of parents deeply attached to the principles of 
their sect. 

The Government, impressed with this state of 
things, and fearing that a considerable number of 
poor children would thus be excluded from these 
means of instruction by the scruples of their parents, 
determined latterly to introduce what the English 
call the Conscience Clause. This is a new stipulation 
dictated by the Government to those who accept its 
aid. It requires school managers to receive all the 
children in a parish, whether they belong to the 
Church of England or not ; and it likewise forbids 
them to place under religious instruction any children 
whose parents are opposed to it. This clause has 
called forth a very energetic controversy on the part 
of the ecclesiastical authorities all over the kingdom. 
With many of the clergy, defending the school seemed 
the same as defending the Church. The resistance, 
therefore, which this measure has experienced can- 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



not much be wondered at ; and certainly there is no 
want of arguments to bring against it. Has it not 
been the Church's money which has built these 
schools, from which they now want to expel, at least 
in part, the teaching of the national faith? Has it 
not been the generous exertions of the clergy which 
have for ages borne the entire burden of elementary 
instruction in the country districts ? And what is it 
that they are now asking of them ? To dissever their 
former work, to keep silence as to their doctrines, 
and to open their doors to a mere indifference in 
matters of religion ! Divines, therefore, confine them- 
selves to the old formula: JSfolumus leges Anglice mutari. 

On the other side, it may be said, has not the 
State also its duties to fulfil ? As trustee of the pub- 
lic purse, is it not its duty to respect the pecuniary 
rights and religious convictions of all its members? 
In order to facilitate the attendance at school of the 
whole of the children of the working classes, is it not 
its duty to pull down the barriers which are opposed, 
by the differences in religious belief, to the full pro- 
gress of lay secular instruction ? It is difficult to 
foretell the issue of a contest in which the highest 
authorities would be found engaged on one side or 
the other ; but one thing is very certain, whatever may 
be said, that the Government has no intention of un- 
dermining the foundation of the Church in England. 

Elementary instruction is, after all, chiefly in 
the hands of the clergy. For example, if it is re- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



89 



quired to nominate a schoolmaster, lie is selected by 
the parson of the parish, who is in many cases the 
sole manager of the school. Generally, however, 
four or five laymen, members of the Church of Eng- 
land, are chosen by the subscribers to assist the 
minister in the exercise of this control, their names 
also being entered in the trust-deed. He goes in 
and out of the school as if it were his own house ; 
the children all know and respect him; they are 
something like a second family to him. In some 
countries, one might be frightened at contemplating 
the srreat influence exercised by the Church over the 
instruction of the people; but the causes of distrust 
which operate elsewhere do not exist in England. 
Here both riches and knowledge impose their obli- 
gations. A clergyman, belonging to the richer and 
educated classes, feels bound to communicate to those 
beneath him some of those benefits which he himself 
has received from society. The Protestant clergy, 
besides, have no dread of enlightenment ; for experi- 
ence has shown them that, among an independent 
people, education is alone able to form a guarantee 
against the abuse of the liberty enjoyed. 

"What a change also has shown itself, since the 
early years of this century, in the whole appearance 
of the buildings devoted to elementary instruction ! 
Years ago, in the country, the duties of the school- 
master were sometimes assumed by the barber ; and 
the emblems of his trade — a long pole with a shaving- 



90 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

dish on the end — figured in front of his shop or of 
his school, whichever you may like to call it. At the 
present day, the place where the children assemble 
for instruction is often nothing but an old brick 
building; but the inside walls are neatly white- 
washed, and ornamented with pictures, geographical 
charts, or various scientific appliances. During sum- 
mer time, the joyous rays of the sun and the sweet 
song of the birds come in through the open windows, 
all hung round with a leafy curtain. Nothing has 
been neglected which can render instruction attrac- 
tive ; for it is well understood that ignorance is the 
only enemy that English institutions have to dread. 
The happy effects of this system of education, in 
which the State and the clergy both concur, are not 
confined to the mother country alone; the benefits 
are extended also to the Colonies, to which every 
year such vast numbers of emigrants make their way. 
Some years ago, sixteen young girls were sent from 
a workhouse school to Australia. All of them found 
suitable positions, and one had the good fortune to 
marry a man of large fortune. Having subsequently 
returned to England, she went in her carriage to pay 
a visit to the workhouse where she had spent her 
early years ; and having sent for the schoolmistress, 
she said to her, " How heartily I thank you ! for I 
owe it to your kind care, and to the lessons you 
taught me, that I have been able to acquire tins 
position in the world." 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



91 



Although the English clergy fully believe that 
they are following out a Divine work, it is neverthe- 
less by human and material means that they seek to 
attain success. In this last point of view the Church 
among our neighbours does not escape the attacks of 
criticism ; some reproach her for her great wealth, 
and others lay to her charge the confusion in her 
doctrines, and the divisions with which she is rent. 
There are other grievances complained of which we 
shall touch upon in our remarks on Religious Life 
in Towns. For my own part, I am at the present 
time struck with the harmony which subsists be- 
tween Protestantism and English institutions gene- 
rally. In other European countries the question of 
religion has often been a source of social conflict. 
If a nation had the good fortune to secure for itself, 
after a revolution, the forms of representative govern- 
ment, she next day found herself face to face with 
an inflexible opinionated class of ideas, independent 
of all control by the civil powers. The new govern- 
ment had then to contend, in the consciences of its 
subjects, with a law that was above the law, with an 
absolute authority superior to that of the State, and 
with a foreign and infallible sovereign, whose oracles, 
and sometimes even anathemas, checked at every step 
the march of progress. 

Nothing of the kind has existed in England since 
the Revolution of 1 688. By diminishing the supre- 
macy of the ecclesiastical body, and by harmonising 



92 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND, 

religious institutions with political authority, the 
State threw aside beforehand one of the principal 
causes of discord. This absence of absolutism in 
articles of faith has rendered easy, — across the Chan- 
nel, — the victory of a constitutional regime ; for there 
was already rooted in the habits of the people a reli- 
gion based on the great principle of the liberty of 
investigation, and on the individual responsibility of 
every man towards God and his own conscience. 
Since the above date the English people have exercised 
a continual control, if not over the foundation of dog- 
mas, at least over the external forms through which 
they are manifested. With them the power that 
makes the laws is the same that presides over the 
affairs of the National Church. The clergy are mar- 
ried, and, to a certain extent, functionaries of the 
State ; they are, therefore, bound to the maintenance 
of the constitution, and form by no means a separate 
caste in society. They may, perhaps, be animated by 
a certain esprit de corps ; but their interest and their 
duties incessantly draw them back into the great cur- 
rents of public opinion. The Church, thus joined to 
the State, forms the key-stone to the arch of the poli- 
tical edifice, and this edifice itself exists in England 
only by the nation's will. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Religious Life in Towns— Lambeth Palace— The Chapel, the Great 
Hall, and the Guard Room — The prison in the Lollards' 
Tower — Dungeon of detention— Organisation of the Church 
of England— The two Primates— The Archbishop of Canter- 
bury — Annual visit of the Stationers' Company to Lambeth 
Palace — The archiepiscopal city of Canterbury — The "Ta- 
bard" Inn — Chaucer and Shakespeare — Palace Street — St. 
Martin's church — Origin of Christianity in England — St. 
Augustin, first Archbishop of Canterbury — External appear- 
auce of the cathedral and cloisters — Sunday service in a 
Protestant temple — Thomas a Becket — Nature of a cathedral 
chapter — Organisation of deans and canons — The chapter 
of Canterbury. 

At the first glance, who would suspect that the Eng- 
lish had any system of worship at all ? The streets 
and public places are with them so devoid of any 
parade of their religion ; the priest is blended with the 
citizen ; and neither sacred images, nor processions, 
nor priestly vestments, are ever to be met with in the 
open air. There is little else but the strict observance 
of the Sabbath that gives any outward indication that 
England is a Christian nation, and even on that day 
religious feelings seem to withdraw themselves into 
the churches and houses. The potency of the institu- 
tion of the Sabbath does not, however, rest in the 
law, but in the force of public opinion, and in the 



94 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

customs of the people. The law is very tolerant, but 
not so the customs which here watch over the popular 
faith. In principle, every one is master in his own 
house ; but almost every householder is provided with 
neighbours who would feel scandalised at the sound 
of profane music on Sunday. Even the children in 
the parks and public promenades refrain from run- 
ning about and joining in noisy [games and from 
immoderate laughter. We may judge from this what 
a restraint would be imposed by feelings of public 
propriety on any course of action calculated to trample 
on the national usages. Sunday is also the only day 
of rest laid down by the law ; the English certainly 
keep a few other holidays, such as Christmas-day 
and Good Friday; but they are not at all of the same 
nature as the Sundays. Good Friday is for the work- 
ing classes a great day for excursions and pleasure- 
taking, for it does not enter into the character of the 
Anglo-Saxon to give himself up to the gloom of a 
tearful piety. As for Christmas it is, with our 
neighbours the day above- all others for family 
festivals. 

In Great Britain religion is based on universal 
consent, and although it may appear but little in" out- 
ward forms, it has not the less deeply impressed its 
stamp on the ideas, the literature, and the mode of 
life of the English. There also exists in the very 
bosom of the nation a strongly constituted -Church, 
whose internal mechanism is moulded on the model 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 95 

of their civil institutions. The Queen is the head 
both of Church and State ; but in matters of faith 
especially she reigns, but does not govern. The 
executive power in the spiritual body is represented 
by the primates, the bishops, and the chapters ; the 
legislative power, on the other hand, — as far as any 
exists, — is located in the ecclesiastical convocations. 
The country clergy* are united to those in the towns, 
as well as to the superior authorities, by various inter- 
mediate officials, and especially, in certain dioceses, 
by the rural deans. It is this organisation which I 
wish to represent to the reader by placing him, as it 
were, on the very scene of action. 

Various congregations have been formed without 
the pale of the Established Church, who maintain the 
right of worshipping God in their own way, and who 
are designated under the general term of Dissenters 
or Nonconformists. Some among them cast aside all 
kinds of rites and ceremonies; even kneeling down, 
in their eyes, is a degradation. Under all this con- 
tempt of certain practices, there is, however, hidden 
a collection of dogmas and duties to which these sects 
adhere with a frigid obstinacy. This religious life is 
spread over the whole of England ; but the towns, 
and above all the cathedral cities, are the best places 
in which to form a correct idea both of the system 
as a whole and also in its various details. 



* See Chapter I. 



96 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury forms the con- 
necting link between the Queen and the Anglican 
clergy; it is therefore quite natural that he should 
have his palace in London, the seat of government, 
instead of residing in his diocese. Lambeth Palace, 
built on the banks of the Thames, has been the ap- 
panage of the Primates of All England since the 
time of Richard I. Lambeth was once a suburban 
village, which has now become merged in the per- 
petual encroachments of London, and has ended in 
forming a portion of the metropolis. The best way 
of going to it is by water ; steamboats, starting from 
London Bridge, carry throngs of passengers to it 
all day long, stopping, however, at various stations, 
formed by floating jetties fastened by chains, which 
rise and fall -with the periodical ebb and flow of the 
tide. Going up the river, we leave on the right St. 
Paul's, Somerset House, the Houses of Parliament, 
bristling all over with stone pinnacles, and West- 
minster Abbey ; and then, on the opposite bank of 
the river, we soon see a sombre edifice partaking 
both of an ecclesiastical and baronial character. The 
outline of some very old buildings scattered about in 
the green foliage, but joined together by an outer 
wall following the course of the river, is nearly all 
that we are able to distinguish at a first and distant 
view. 

At last the steamer stops, and having reached 
the shore and ascended the steep bank, we find our- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 97 

selves in a small open space, on the left of which 
stands the great fortified gate of the palace, a gloomy 
facade of red brick, flanked with two high square 
and embattled towers, standing out boldly from the 
walls, and pierced with five rows of narrow windows 
enclosed with iron bars. This gate was rebuilt in 
1490 by Cardinal Morton, and took the place of a 
still sterner-looking one, of which it was said, " that 
it was made in order to welcome friends and to re- 
pulse enemies." Even as it now is, it seemed to me 
in its rude feudal beauty quite menacing enough, 
and I rather hesitated for an instant to raise the 
knocker on a small door, modernly and deeply cut 
out in the form of a pointed arch in the thickness of 
the wall between the towers. 

A porter came and opened the door to me ; I 
informed him of the aim of my visit, and showed him 
a letter which had been sent me by the directions of 
the Archbishop, and which authorised me to inspect 
the interior of the palace. Whilst he read and re- 
read the terms of this missive, I had time enough to 
look round me at the appearance of the place. I 
was standing under a massive arched vault, supported 
by four stout pillars placed at the four corners, from 
the capitals of which spring fine stone mouldings, 
intersecting one another at acute angles at the centre 
of the roof. The porter's lodge opens on the right, 
whilst through the vast opening of the archway be- 
tween the two towers the outer court is visible, also 

H 



98 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



known under the name of the Bishop's Walk. It is 
in fact a sort of garden, bounded on the left by an 
ivy-covered wall, and on the right, from one end 
to another, by the library, which was once the ban- 
queting-hall. In every detail of this latter building 
it is easy to recognise the debased style of archi- 
tecture which flourished in England in the time of 
Charles II. Its roof, supported on abutments or 
buttresses with quoins of white stone, rises somewhat 
feebly into the air, and is ornamented, or rather, 
loaded, with great globes overtopping the frieze, and 
is crowned in the centre with a lantern of a quaint 
style. The walk is closed up at the end by an old 
tower, the Water Tower, faced with stone eaten away 
by time ; and with this building is connected, at a 
little distance off, the Lollards' 1 Tower, of evil memory. 
When the porter had at last made himself master of 
the contents of the letter, he informed me that he 
would ring for the housekeeper, and that I might 
proceed by a way which he would point out to the 
archbishop's apartments in the inner court. 

The entrance to this inner court is through 
another vaulted doorway adjoining the manuscript 
room, leading into a large uncovered space, hi the 
middle of which is a green lawn surmounted by an 
ornamented cross carrying gas-lights. In front there 
is a high wall hiding the stables, and indeed itself 
half hidden with fine trees ; whilst on the left there 
are old buildings to which more modern structures 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



99 



are joined on with a certain degree of harmony. It 
would be difficult to decide on any one epoch for the 
building ; for that which remains of the ancient part 
of it seems to belong to several different periods of 
art. The architect of the more modern portions has 
adopted a mixed style, which cleverly links together 
the more discordant parts of the edifice. 

The porter's signal had been understood, and a 
female in black was waiting for me on the threshold 
of the entrance-hall. The archbishop was not there, 
and it may be easily understood that he would not be 
sorry to get away from the gloomy solemnity of his 
official residence. I walked through a considerable 
number of apartments furnished in a simple and 
sober way befitting the dignity of an ecclesiastical 
palace. The walls were here and there ornamented 
with fine pictures ; amongst which I especially re- 
marked the portrait of Archbishop "Warham by Hol- 
bein, and also that of Luther clasping the hand of his 
wife. The most interesting parts of the building are 
the chapel, the great hall, and the guard-room. 

The chapel is very ancient, in the early English 
style, and may well have been the work of the war- 
like founder of Lambeth palace.* In this very 



* Matthew Paris gives an account of an armed quarrel be- 
tween Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Prior of St. 
Bartholomew in Smithfield. It was, however, this scandalous 
scene which gave cause for the erection of the ecclesiastical 
palace at Lambeth towards the middle of the thirteenth century. 



100 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

chapel Wycliffe, who was afterwards styled the Pre- 
cursor of the Reformation, appeared before a council 
of Papal delegates assembled to pronounce on his 
doctrines. The affair, however, took rather an awk- 
ward turn, when the people dared to force their way 
into the sacred place, and some citizens of London 
spoke boldly in favour of the accused. Before this 
mental commotion the proud prelates " trembled," 
says a Catholic historian, " like reeds shaken by the 
wind; their language, which up to this time had 
been harsh and threatening, became then as sweet as 
honey."* They merely forbade Wycliffe to repeat 
his heretical propositions, either in the schools or in 
the pulpit. Yet they were destined to be again re- 
peated two centuries later wkh still greater effect; 
and the echoes of this chapel first trembled at these 
new doctrines, and afterwards succumbed to them. 

The great hall, rebuilt in 1570, and at the pre- 
sent day converted into a library, is adorned with a 
splendid window facing the door of entrance; the 
painted glass in which, comprising the portrait of 
Archbishop Chicheley and the coats-of-arms of Juxon 
and of Philip of Spain, husband of Mary Tudor, has 
been collected together from the other parts of the 
ancient palace. How striking is the richness of the 



* This historian is Walsingham, author of the Historia Anglic. 
According to his account, this fear-inspired indulgence was very 
prejudicial to the dignity both of the legates and of the Church 
generally. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



101 



carved wainscoting and the vaulted roof, borne on 
semicircular arches of oak or chestnut, and between 
them the elegantly carved centre bosses, boldly cut 
out with the chisel. In this great hall the primates 
of all England in the olden time used to entertain 
their guests — princes, peers, and high dignitaries of 
the Church. The annals of the period have handed 
down many traditions of the magnificence of these 
festivals. 

Before you reach the guard-room, there is a 
gallery lighted by four lanterns or glazed skylights, 
which throw down the light from the ceiling. On 
the walls is spread out a series of portraits of the 
former archbishops. The whole religious history of 
England is here. The chief events which have, 
during long ages, disturbed the conscience of a 
nation, seem to live over again in these cold and 
silent faces. What a stately council of the dead is 
here ! Among the representatives of these succes- 
sive ages, the eye first seeks out the epoch of the 
Reformation, the " point de la rupture" as Bossuet 
calls it. First of all there is Cranmer, the noble 
martyr who was burnt at Oxford. Between him 
and the Protestant Archbishop Parker is placed, like 
a blood-stain, Cardinal Pole, awaking all the terrible 
recollections of Mary Tudor. Other memorials of 
troublous times follow in quick succession, — the por- 
trait of Laud, painted by Van Dyck ; the archbishop 
who, as is well known, ascended the scaffold, on 



102 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

which Charles I. was soon to follow Mm. "With 
Juxon we reach the violent era of the Restoration, 
when the sworcl was turned round against the Puri- 
tans. Gradually the storm subsides,. and the series 
of Protestant archbishops, calm henceforth in the 
consciousness of victory, is continued as far as the 
walls of the guard-room, now used as the state dining- 
room. This uninterrupted succession of ancient and 
modern primates serves well to explain the idea of 
the Anglican Church. In her line of continuity the 
Reformation is neither a gap nor a severance ; it is 
merely a development. 

Lambeth Palace has been styled the British Vati- 
can. And, in fact, how many reminiscences are 
crowded under those stern arches, haunted by all 
the ghosts of history ! Mary Tudor, Elizabeth, nay 
almost all the Kings and Queens of England have 
come there to consult the Archbishops of Canterbury 
on affairs of Church and State. Peter the Great 
has been there also ; Latimer, Thomas More, and the 
Catholic Archbishop Fisher were, in turn, imprisoned 
there on account of their religious opinions ; for this 
palace was once a prison also, and former archbishops 
were in the habit of combining with their office as 
primate that of an inquisitor also. The sinister glory 
of having been the first to commence religious per- 
secutions belongs, it is said, to Archbishop Arundel, 
who in 1401 caused a priest named William Sawtre 
to be degraded and burnt in Smithfield. Chicheley, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 103 

who succeeded Arundel, did not wish, as it seemed, 
to be in any way behind his predecessor, and ordered 
the building of the Lollards' Tower. * This was the 
portion of the palace I had not yet visited. 

The way to it is through the Water Tower, at 
the base of which is a vaulted chamber called the 
post-room. There is, in fact, in the centre of it a 
wooden post, which, as firm as a tree, partly helps 
to support the mass of the tower. Tradition will 
have it that it was to this post that they used to 
tie heretics when they wished to inflict on them the 
torture of the lash. This chamber communicates at 
one end with the chapel, where repenting Lollards 
might, if they wished, pronounce their recantation, 
and at the other end with the tower, the rough 
stone steps of which I mounted with some degree 
of emotion. All has remained intact in this portion 
of the palace, — the gaoler's room, the cells, the 
dungeon, the platform, and the niches ornamented 
with Gothic sculpture, among which, on the outside, 



* The name of this sect, which took its rise in Germany at the 
commencement of the fourteenth century, has very much exer- 
cised the learning of etymologists. Some derive it from the 
German word lullen, lillen, or lallen, signifying to sing ; others 
from the Latin word lolium (tares), in allusion to the parable of 
the Evangelist ; and others from Walter Lollard, or Lolhard, one 
of the chiefs of the sect. It is certain that the epithet of Lol- 
lard was subsequently used in England to designate all classes of 
heretics. It was applied in the latter sense, in England, to the 
followers of Wycliffe. 



104 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

figures the statue of Thomas a Becket. Going up 
the spiral staircase, we reach the first floor of the 
tower through a heavy door, studded with large- 
headed nails and strengthened with large pieces of 
oak. Opening this door, groaning on its rusty hinges, 
we find ourselves in a small dungeon, measuring 
about thirteen feet in length and eleven and a half 
feet in width. This chamber is now lighted by two 
small windows ; but formerly, if I may believe my 
cicerone, its only means of light was a small aperture 
in the form of a loop-hole, and it was consequently 
wrapped in obscurity. The walls and flag-stones are 
furnished with thick, ill-planed planks, on which 
may be seen iron rings riveted in at intervals, and 
on these rings there still hung, some forty years ago, 
the remains of chains. To each of these rings, — 
I counted seven of them, — used to be fastened a 
prisoner, tantalised by all the charms of life and 
nature outside. There seemed to be a refinement 
of cruelty even in the elevated position of the prison : 
the captives could hear from the Thames the ripple 
of the water stirred by the oar, the song of the birds, 
and the rustling of the leaves ; for the tops of the 
tall trees nearly touched the sides of the tower. A 
place for a chimney seemed to open on one side of 
the cell ; but the chimney itself is nothing but a 
deceit ; there is no passage for the smoke, which 
beat back into the room and suffocated the unfortu- 
nate victims. It was, doubtless, one way of dealing 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 105 

with intractable heretics. There is still a trap-door 
in the floor, lifted up by an iron ring, communi- 
cating with the river through a gloomy-looking hole ; 
down tins they used to throw the dead bodies. The 
wooden lining hiding the walls of the prison is 
covered all over with almost illegible characters, 
scratched with the point of a nail or cut with a 
knife. They may be looked upon as hieroglyphics 
written by the hands of the dead on the walls of their 
sepulchre. 

Yet this dungeon, with all its horrors, could not 
impose silence on human thought. The prisons were 
no longer large enough, and it became necessary 
to establish at the entrance of the palace, close by 
the lodge now occupied by the porter, a dungeon 
for the temporary reception of the Lollards when 
there was no room in the tower. Tradition tells us 
that a certain man named Grafton, whose name is 
inscribed on the wall with his own hands, perished 
in this chamber. Do not such localities as these 
inspire us with reflections, — sad enough, but still 
salutary ? With the lapse of time, the dungeon at 
Lambeth has become victorious over the palace. 
From the dark night of the prison- cell that liberty 
of thought winch they were bent on interdicting has 
come forth triumphant. The shades of those whom, 
in bygone ages, they cast down into the flowing river, 
are to-day the ruling powers in these solitary galle- 
ries, under the sway of a Protestant archbishop. 



106 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Independently of the Queen, — the lay chief of 
the spiritual power, — the Church recognises two 
primates, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the 
Archbishop of York. The first is Primate of all 
England and Metropolitan, whilst the latter is only 
Primate of England ; a subtle distinction, certainly, 
but still not badly expressing the degrees of rank. 
The Archbishop of Canterbury has the honour of 
crowning the Sovereign soon after the accession to 
the throne, whilst the Archbishop of York crowns 
the Koyal Consort only. In public ceremonies the 
two primates take precedence before all temporal 
peers who are not of the blood-royal, and the Lord 
Chancellor of England takes his place between the 
two prelates. The Archbishop of Canterbury being 
the acknowledged chief of the Church, is the prelate 
appealed to by the ministers of State to consult with 
them in all matters relative to religion. In the 
House of Lords his opinions, when they are not op- 
posed during the sitting of Parliament by the other 
ecclesiastical peers, are held to represent the senti- 
ments of the episcopal bench. 

England is divided, in a spiritual point of view, 
into two great provinces, Canterbury and York ; both 
of which, on the other hand, are subdivided into 
dioceses, and the two archbishops exercise an actual 
jurisdiction over their suffragan bishops. Between 
the former and the latter there also exist more than 
one honorary distinction. The archbishop, in official 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 



107 



style, exercises his functions " by Divine provi- 
dence," whilst the bishops occupy their sees "by 
Divine permission" only. At his accession to his 
diocese a bishop is only installed; the archbishop, on 
the contrary, is enthroned. After all, these external 
signs only serve to indicate the gradations of hier- 
archical authority. It very frequently happens that 
the Archbishop of York succeeds to the throne of 
Canterbury when it becomes vacant, and Dr. Long- 
ley, the present Primate of all England, is no ex- 
ception to this general rule. The emoluments of the 
Archbishop of Canterbury amount to 15,000/. a-year. 
By a very ancient custom, money, bread, and 
victuals are given away at Lambeth Palace three 
times a week to ten poor people belonging to the 
parish of Lambeth. This parish is one of the worst 
provided parishes in London, and the palace stands 
in the midst of a mixture of miserable houses, in 
which every kind of poverty abounds. On the days 
of distribution, a dingy-looking group waits in front 
of the great feudal gateway until the door is opened, 
and, as the ten claimants are changed on each oc- 
casion, thirty poor people in all receive this charity. 
The episcopal residence was in the habit of receiving 
once a year quite a different class of visitors. On 
the day of the installation of the new Lord Mayor, 
a procession by water used to take place on the 
Thames. When Archbishop Tennison held the see 
of Canterbury, one of his relations, who was master 



108 RELIGIOUS LIFE EST ENGLAND. 

of the Stationers' Company, took it into his head 
to go on as far as Lambeth in his canopied barge. 
The archbishop sent out wine for the merchants, and 
new bread, old cheese, and plenty of ale for the 
boatmen of the corporation. Next year the same 
barge again stopped before the walls of the old 
palace, and received the same hospitality. At the 
present day this annual visit has passed out of use.* 

The official residence of the primates of all Eng- 
land is certainly in London ; but if you want to form 
a good idea of an ancient archiepiscopal see, you 
must go to Canterbury itself. Before leaving London 
for this latter city, I visited the Tabard or Talbot Inn, 
in memory of Chaucer and his joyous pilgrims. This 
old inn is situate near the London-Bridge railway 
station, at the end of a court opening into High 
Street, Borough. On the right in this court there is 
a public -house of a tolerably modern appearance, 



* Dr. Longley now occupies the see of Canterbury. Born at 
Kochester in 1794, he first studied at Westminster School, from 
whence he passed to the University of Oxford. Nominated Pub- 
lic Examiner in 1815, he afterwards became Tutor and Censor at 
Christ Church. He was presented by this college to the small 
living of Cowley, a village in the environs of Oxford. In 1829 he 
became Head Master of Harrow School. In 1831 he married 
Caroline, eldest daughter of the first Lord Congleton. The see of 
Ripon having been founded in 1830, he became its first bishop. 
After having been promoted from the see of Eipon to that of 
Durham, and from thence to the Archbishopric of York, he was 
finally, in 1862, invested with the supreme dignity in the Church 
of England. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



109 



although the interior of it still retains some traces 
of antiquity. On the left, and fronting the public- 
house, there is a much older building, doubling round 
the end of the court, with a gloomy ground-floor ; 
and on the first-floor an open gallery, protected by 
a wooden balustrade along its whole length, and 
divided at intervals by light round pillars, supporting 
an old, high-pitched, tiled roof. This building, which 
seems but little modernised, serves at present as a 
depot for the goods traffic of the Midland Railway, 
and there has been some talk of pulling it down. 
A defaced picture, the colours of which have been 
long since washed out by the rain, is placed above 
the gallery. In days gone by, one might have read 
the following inscription : " This is the inn where 
Geoffrey Chaucer and twenty-nine pilgrims lodged, 
the eve of their journey to Canterbury in lSSSJ'* I 
will leave the archaeologists to decide the question 
whether this be really the hostelrie which the poet 
sung of, or whether another inn has been built at 
some unknown era on the same spot. 

I did not immoderately regret the good old times 
when devotion led one to plod along on foot in mak- 
ing a pilgrimage, and when " the poetry of travel- 
ling," as it is called, was in full perfection ; so I 
willingly made up my mind to go by railroad. My 
travelling companions certainly did not at all re- 
semble Chaucer's gay pilgrims. Instead of beguiling 
the length of the journey — not very long, though, 



110 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

nowadays — by tales and merry talk, each of them 
preserved, in his separate seat, a silence most de- 
cidedly British. How many things steam has 
changed ! After two or three hours, during which 
I saw flit by me, as in a dream, the well-known 
scenery of Kent, we passed into the middle of a rich 
valley, — the valley of the Stour, — surrounded with 
hills dotted over with clumps of trees and windmills, 
and through immense meadows, in which one was 
almost surprised to see the cows quietly feeding. 
These, at any rate, must have escaped the cattle- 
plague now devastating England. A few clear rivu- 
lets make their way down the gentle declivities of 
the hills, and serve to water the hop-gardens ; and 
then, after making numberless windings, without, 
as it were, venturing to enter the town, they mostly 
run into the Stour, a small stream with its bed all 
bordered with long trailing plants, undulated by the 
rippling of the water, like the tresses of a Naiad. 
This stream, at any rate, has no hesitation, and 
boldly makes its way into Canterbury, first furling 
itself, under the shade of some old trees, against the 
wheel of a mill. 

On arriving at Canterbury by railway, the city 
lies spread out on the right, and the cathedral stands 
out over the smoky roofs into the clear sky, its three 
towers almost obscured by a cloud of jackdaws. 
These ancient temples are like sleeping beauties in 
the wood, and seem to render every thing drowsy 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



Ill 



round them. Thus it is that this old city of Can- 
terbury has preserved for ages the appearance of a 
town which .slumbers, wrapped up in its religious 
traditions and its thoroughly English routine. It has 
no manufactories, no workshops, scarcely any local 
trade. The inhabitants derive their livelihood almost 
entirely from agriculture and the cultivation of the 
hop. We enter by the west gate, a gloomy machico- 
lated mass of stone, flanked with two large round 
towers, on each side of which the remains of the old 
wall can still be traced out, which, though now pulled 
down, used to serve as the boundaries of the city. 
Before passing under this archway of formidable 
aspect, I spied out in the main street of the suburb 
an old inn, with the portrait of FalstafF in front of 
it — a character easily to be recognised by his great 
stomach and pimpled nose. Now, what on earth 
could this king of drunkards have to do in an eccle- 
siastical city ? I had scarcely asked myself this ques- 
tion, when I bethought me of the passage in Henry 
IV. , where Poins proposes to Falstaff and his bold 
companions to start together for Gad's-hill, and there 
to lay violent hands on " the pilgrims going to Can- 
terbury with rich offerings, and the traders riding 
from Canterbury to London with their fat purses." 
Chaucer and Shakspeare, then, are the two literary 
patrons of this ancient city. 

The more one advances into the heart of the town 
the more one seems to plunge, so to speak, into the 



112 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

middle ages. Groups of winding streets, pierced 
with narrow alleys and mysterious-looking passages, 
are closely crowded round the cathedral. Most of 
the old houses, with their lean-to roofs and pointed 
gables, have been freshened up and coloured with 
whitewash; some, on the contrary, have remained 
in their primitive state. Among the latter I par- 
ticularly noticed a very old house in Palace Street, 
with plaster walls framed with wooden beams ; it 
had windows latticed with lead, and grotesque figures 
serving as supports to the angle of the architraves.* 
It was also distinguished by having its outside quite 
peopled with swallows. These winged architects had 
lodged their masonry in every available corner out- 
side the floors which overhung the street, and in 
order to protect their insecure nests, which no doubt 
were thought to bring good fortune to the house, the 
inhabitants had taken the trouble to support them 
with pieces of wood. 

Tradition will have it that many of these half- 
ruined though picturesque dwellings served as inns 
for the pilgrims who succeeded one another so nume- 
rously in the city of Canterbury. Mercery Lane is 
pointed out, especially, as the spot where a great 

* Those rough wooden carvings, that we meet with in many- 
other parts of the city, generally represent a fawn squatting down, 
with pointed ears, goat's feet, and the breast of a woman. The 
violent effort they seem to make to support the projecting parts 
of the architecture has the appearance of hideously stretching the 
sinews of the neck. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



113 



hostelrie once stood, in which Chaucer and his com- 
panions took up their abode, after coming from the 
" Tabard" in Southwark ; this lane, however, has 
now lost much of its character. A quiet life seems 
to have inspired the inhabitants of Canterbury with 
a taste for flower-growing. I recall with pleasure 
a narrow street where the casements presented one 
uninterrupted line of window-gardens cultivated with 
a high degree of skill. All this floral array seemed 
to spread an air of youth and freshness over the old 
walls. But all this is not exactly what I came to 
Canterbury to see. I ought first to visit those parts 
of the city in which can be traced out something of 
the origin of Christianity in England, and those also 
which can give an idea of the present condition of 
the national church. 

Outside the ancient ramparts, on the further side 
of a hill, stands the little church of St. Martin. It is 
a perfect model of an English country church, and is 
surrounded by a lovely churchyard, in which the 
white tombs covered with flowers form a pleasing 
contrast to the dark shrubs with their red berries. 
The tower of St. Martin's, gracefully overgrown with 
ivy, overlooks rather an extensive prospect, and the 
simple lines of the architecture altogether seem to 
breathe an air of chaste antiquity. Tradition states 
that this edifice was constructed by the Romans who 
came to colonise England in the reign of Clau- 
dius, many of whom were Christians. Everything, 

I 



114 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

however, appears to show that a part of the church, 
at least, was rebuilt at the commencement of the 
12th century, with the materials of another and more 
ancient chapel. The outside walls, although they 
have been latterly plastered over and repaired, ex- 
hibit every here and there Roman tiles, which have 
been laid bare by the dropping off of the cement. 
Bede relates that when Augustin, England's great 
apostle, arrived at Canterbury, about 597 a.d., he 
found there two ancient Christian churches, one 
situated within the walls to the east, the other stand- 
ing a short distance from the ramparts. The first of 
these two churches was converted into what is now 
called the cathedral ; the latter is, as we have every 
reason to believe, the present church of St. Martin. 

It is not generally known that England under the 
Saxon rule was a sort of nursery for providing white 
slaves for all the markets in the south of Europe, 
just as Kentucky not long ago furnished negroes to 
all the neighbouring States that wished for that article 
of commerce. Gregory the Great, then a simple monk, 
passing one day down the streets of Rome, was struck 
with the beauty of some young people exposed for 
sale, and inquired what country they came from. 
Having ascertained that they were Anglo-Saxons, he 
determined to be of some service to their island.* A 



* A pun is attributed to him, which is quite in the taste of the 
period. " If they were only Christians," he is reported to have said, 
" they would be angels (angeli), and not Angles (Angli) merely." 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



115 



few years after, he was elected Pope, and recollect- 
ing these poor captives, he sent Augustin, or Austin, 
with forty monks, in order to convert to Christianity 
the worshippers of Tlior and Odin. The missionaries 
disembarked in the Isle of Thanet, and advanced as 
far as Canterbury, the capital of the kingdom of Kent, 
where the court was then residing. They found the 
gromid all prepared for them. Bertha, the wife of 
the Saxon king Ethelbert, was already a Christian, 
and, if tradition can be believed, was in the haj^it, 
even before the arrival of the monks, of celebrating, 
together with her attendants, the mysteries of her 
faith in the little chapel of St. Martin. At the present 
time this church is divided into three distinct parts : 
the porch, which has been lately restored ; the nave, 
at the entrance of which stands a very ancient" font of 
grayish marble, in which it is alleged that Ethelbert 
was baptized by St. Augustin ; and lastly, the chan- 
cel, on the left of which, in a recess of the wall, lies a 
massive stone coffin said to contain the remains of 
Queen Bertha. I was giving myself up to the poetry 
of reminiscence diffused through the dim light of the 
vaulted arches, and to the reflections naturally in- 
spired by this cradle of English Christianity, when 
the doors suddenly opened admitting a crowd of peo- 
ple. It was Sunday afternoon, and the little church, 
founded by the Romans, was to be utilised to-day for 
the service of the Anglican worship. 

This St. Augustin was the first Archbishop of 



116 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Canterbury. King Ethelbert gave up to him his 
palace in the town to be turned into a monastery, of 
which there still remain some remarkable vestiges.* 
He also made over to him the church which had been 
built by the primitive Christians within the city- 
walls, and on the foundation of which another edifice 
was soon raised, dedicated to Christ; from thence 
comes the name of Christ Church, which the cathe- 
dral still bears. Augustin had come with the inten- 
tion of placing England under the spiritual authority 
of the Sovereign Pontiff, or as Protestants would say, 
of the Bishop of Rome. His views appear to have 
met with serious opposition on the part of the ancient 
Christian church, which, although it had been for a 
long time persecuted by the Saxons, still existed, 
and wished to maintain its independence against 
the usurpations of this new religious power. When 
England was consolidated into one monarchy, the 
city of Canterbury lost much of its political con- 
sequence, but as the ecclesiastical metropolis of the 
kingdom it increased more and more in importance. 
Its cathedral, the work of ages, embraces the whole 



* This abbey, having fallen into ruins, was occupied some 
years back by a brewery, a public-house, and a bowling-green. 
In 1844 the remains of this ancient religious edifice were sold by 
auction, and Mr. Beresford Hope bought them, in order to turn 
them into a college for Protestant missionaries. The exterior 
of the great gate is much to be admired ; it has been latterly 
restored, or at any rate repaired. 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 117 

history of the revolutions of religious thought as they 
have affected our neighbours across Channel. 

We approach the cathedral through the precinct- 
gate, an ancient stone facade, blackened by time, 
and covered with carvings more or less effaced, 
having a central low pointed arch, bearing the date 
1517. This gate seems to show that the cathedral 
precincts were formerly surrounded by a wall, and 
that the ecclesiastical quarter thus formed, as it were, 
a town within a town. This ancient arrangement is 
still to some extent respected. It is true that some 
houses of a secular character have broken through 
the sacred boundary, and this much to the detriment 
of the central edifice, to which at least they prevent 
access ; but the area is still generally occupied by the 
dwellings and gardens of the prebendaries. This en- 
closure is divided into three courts, called the Cathe- 
dral Court, the Priory Court, and the Archbishop's 
Court. The ancient palace of the archbishops is now 
nothing but a ruin. Of the Priory, destroyed by 
Henry VIII. , there only now remain some broken 
doorways, some massive pillars supporting semicir- 
cular arches, a fine Norman staircase, and some dark 
and mysterious passages in which the bats flit about 
at nightfall. Some large trees, almost as old as the 
walls, cross and recross one another, straggling about 
amidst the old materials of buildings, bricks, stones, 
and flints. It is difficult to picture the wonderful 
effect of the thick masses of foliage seen through the 



118 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

pointed arches in these gloomy corridors, where the 
footstep resounds on the hollow and sonorous flags. 
In the middle of these ruins and gardens intermixed 
stands the cathedral. 

This edifice has been too often described to render 
it necessary for me to pause over its architectural 
details ; it will suffice for me to point out the internal 
arrangements that Anglican Protestantism has sought 
to impose on the ancient metropolitan churches. At 
present, to reach the portion of the cathedral actually 
devoted to worship, we must pass through an empty 
nave, with its side aisles incrusted with the monu- 
ments of the dead. The stately nakedness of this 
part of the building makes the grandeur of its lines 
and the elevation of its roof stand out to all the better 
advantage. A triple stone staircase leads from the 
nave to the choir, which is veiled by a rich stone 
screen carved with Gothic figures, in the middle of 
which opens an iron gate. This choir is isolated 
from the rest of the edifice by an enclosure of Pur- 
beck marble, surmounted, at a certain height, by 
glass, and is a kind of church within a church. The 
services take place in it on Sunday and throughout 
the week. On the right stands the archbishop's 
throne, and there is also a seat for the archdeacon, 
and stalls for the* dean and prebendaries. The re- 
mainder of the wooden seats are occupied by those 
attending the service and the charity-schools. Two 
officiating ministers, clothed with the insignia of their 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



119 



canonical dignity, commence the prayers. The Sun- 
day sen-ice, although the same in all material points, 
is celebrated in cathedrals with much more solemnity 
than in other Protestant churches. Instead of read- 
ing them, all the words are chanted ; and the full 
voices of the tenors, almost overpowered by the high- 
pitched notes of the choristers, are mingled at in- 
tervals with the majestic tones of the organ. At the 
proper time, one of the ministers proceeds to the 
elevated part in front of the communion-table, sepa- 
rated from the choir by some marble steps, and shut 
in at the sides by the tombs of the ancient arch- 
bishops. Standing alone, and at a distance from the 
congregation, he intones with a deep voice the verses 
of the Decalogue. After the chanting of the prayers, 
a preacher, one of the chapter, reads the sermon, 
which lasts about half an hour. The music, the 
prayers, and the sermon, joined to some very simple 
ceremonies, form all the services which are autho- 
rised, even in cathedrals, by the stern austerity of 
the Protestant ritual. 

To fill up these great piles of stone it requires the 
worship of the saints, the glittering processions of 
priests in their golden chasubles, the sacred vessels 
gleaming at the back of the altar in a perfect sun 
of diamonds, and the clear brilliancy of the wax- 
lights. All this splendour has vanished since the 
Reformation, and the Church seems now to be doing 
penance for her former idolatry ; for this is, in fact, 



120 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

the term which the English apply to the pomps of the 
Eomish worship. In the place of a liturgy which 
smothered thought under the weight of external 
symbolism, they have sought to substitute a religion 
which speaks to the soul. 

Under this choir extends a crypt, which forms 
the most ancient portion of the church, and the 
origin of which is traced back to Archbishop Lan- 
franc (1070 to 1077). There, in the midst of the 
low massive pillars, and in the dark vaults, crumb- 
ling under the weight of their venerable antiquity, 
a very different religious service is celebrated. I 
was quite surprised to light upon traces of France 
in such a place. The Oalvinist refugees, who were 
forced to leave the Low Countries by the cruelties 
of the Duke of Alba, and subsequently the French 
Huguenots, after the Revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, came some of them to settle in Canterbury. 
Queen Elizabeth granted to them this portion of the 
cathedral in which they might freely perform their 
worship. Most of these French. Protestants were 
silk-weavers, and they established manufactures in the 
town, which now no longer exist, but which at one 
period tended to enrich the productions of our neigh- 
bours with a new branch of industry. Their de- 
scendants have forgotten the language of their mother 
country, but they still meet to exercise their religious 
rites in these cold vaults, which no doubt remind 
them of the unhappy times of persecution. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



121 



The choir being the only part devoted to worship, 
the remainder of the cathedral forms a kind of Chris- 
tian Muse'e, the entry, however, to which is forbidden 
to the public during the time of divine worship. 
What treasures there are for the antiquary in these 
disused chapels ! Aisles paved with tombs, monu- 
ments covered with escutcheons, pierced and ragged 
banners, the very spiders' webs of glory ! In the 
ancient chapel of the Holy Trinity a venerable chair 
is shown, formed of three slabs of marble, which, 
according to tradition, was the seat of the ancient 
Saxon kings ; at the present day the Archbishops 
of Canterbury are placed in this chair at the time of 
their enthronement. Tourists never fail to sit down 
in it when visiting the cathedral ; and the English- 
women are not backward in setting the example, 
though they generally complain of the hard seat in 
this arm-chair cut out of the rock. 

One reminiscence seems to fill the whole of the 
cathedral of Canterbury, and it is the only one that I 
shall notice. We can still walk over the same path 
that Thomas a Becket trod, when he retired through 
the cloisters into the interior of the church, the day 
on which he was threatened by Reginald Fitzurse 
and his companions in arms. Here, too, is the very 
stone — an old altar step — on which he fell. Not far 
from the door leading from the cloisters to this chapel 
of St. Benedict is the chapter-house, where Henry II. 
came to do penance, two years after the murder, with 



122 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

naked feet, covered with sackcloth, and offering his 
back, in all humility, to the lashing of the monks. 
Behind the choir was subsequently erected the famous 
shrine containing the relics of the martyr ; and the 
pavement which surrounds it is marked and indented 
by the knees of the pilgrims. Even the very name 
of Christ disappeared from the building, and it was 
then called the Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 
and he was, as it were, the god of the temple. The 
truth is, that in the Middle Ages, Thomas a Becket 
represented the great contest that was going on 
between the ecclesiastical and civil powers. Thus 
his memory, in the present day even, is a kind of 
party-banner in England, rousing up the two old 
factions which are still alive and bitter against one 
another. Those who are accused of wishing for a spi- 
ritual supremacy generally defend Thomas a Becket 
as one of their own party, whilst the opponents of the 
old priestly privileges personify in this archhishop all 
the unjust pretensions of a church which was destined 
to fall sooner or later before the progress of enlighten- 
ment. 

In order to understand the nature of an episcopal 
city at the present time, we must trace out the his- 
torical origin of Christianity in England. At first 
the church had all the character of a mission, and 
the residence of the clergy was in the bishop's palace. 
From thence he sent out his priests to perform reli- 
gious services, and to preach all over his diocese, and 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 123 



thither also they returned when they had performed 
the duties assigned to them. The cathedral formed 
the bishop's mission church and the centre from which 
his influence radiated. 

When the parochial system was subsequently 
established, the bond of union of these primitive 
associations was broken up, and the members of 
the clergy, instead of being collected round the 
bishop, were scattered about in the various towns 
and villages, to which also they transferred their 
places of residence. The bishop, however, retained 
a certain number round his person to assist him in 
councils and to officiate in the metropolitan church. 
Tims was formed what is now called the chapter. At 
first those composing it lived together in common; 
but in the lapse of time they separated, and took up 
their abode in private houses round the cathedral. A 
portion of food and drink, known under the name of 
prebend, was originally assigned to each ; this was 
subsequently commuted for a sum of ?noney levied 
on the property and tithes belonging to each chapter. 
The prebendaries lived under certain rules, but did 
not necessarily take monastic vows. After the eighth 
century, the bishop was wont to nominate one of 
them to take his place in case of his absence and to 
rule over the others. This, therefore, is the origin of 
deans. 

To the dean and chapter thus constituted was 
intrusted the care of the cathedral. They were 



124 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

bound to provide for the proper solemnisation of the 
religious services, and to pay out of their common 
revenue the officials whom they had nominated for 
this purpose. As many of them, no doubt, were in- 
clined to absent themselves from the diocesan city, 
and to take too long periods of leisure, a time of 
obligatory residence was fixed for each canon. This 
rule varied in different dioceses ; at York the term of 
residence was six months, whilst at Chichester it 
embraced three quarters of the year. The resi- 
dentiary was bound to assist every day at matins, at 
prime, at high mass, and at vespers ; and during 
the whole period of his residence he was not allowed 
to sleep outside the city in which the cathedral stood. 
After the Reformation twelve new chapters were 
instituted, which were endowed with the revenues of 
the suppressed monasteries, especially the Benedic- 
tines. The name of newly -founded chapters was given 
them, and their statutes were, it is stated, revised by 
Henry VII^. himself. It is, at any rate, the case 
that in these statutes the bishop's authority forms a 
very meagre element, and they are altogether much 
more in the power of the secular government. The 
new chapters differ also from those of ancient founda- 
tion as regards the mode of endowment. Under the 
old system each prebendary had Iris own estate, which 
was specially assigned to him individually for his 
maintenance ; whilst in the new ones, the estates, 
tithes, and other property all belonged to the chapter 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 125 

in common, which distributed the revenues in equal 
shares among the canons. There was, however, an 
exception in favour of the dean, who received two 
shares, quia nomiuor leo. 

At the present day these distinctions have been 
effaced by an act of parliament. The separate estates, 
which formed according to the old system the pre- 
bends of the chapter, have been confiscated and placed 
under the charge of the Ecclesiastical Commission, 
other property being assigned them to be held in 
common, and its revenue to be equally divided among 
the prebendaries. As to the dean, he now receives 
a fixed payment. These remodellings, it is scarcely 
necessary to say, have only touched upon the chapters 
of ancient foundation ; the others have retained their 
original statutes, and remain much as they were 
moulded by the hand of Henry VIII. The latter, 
twelve in number, have, however, endeavoured, for 
some years past, to improve the income derived from 
their estates, by getting rid of the old system of let- 
ting for life, or rather for three lives, of which we 
have spoken elsewhere. 

Each chapter is composed of four canons com- 
pelled to reside and the dean. Deaneries are in the 
hands of the Queen, who confers them on whom she 
will. Canonries are at the disposal of the Queen and 
Chancellor, or, in certain cases, of the Bishop. There 
are dioceses in which the canons are nominated by 
the chapter itself. This is a trace which has been 



126 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

left of the ancient autonomy of the church, which 
has been gradually reduced and almost absorbed in 
the authority of the civil power. Besides the canons 
residentiary, there are in chapters of the new found- 
ation, a certain number of honorary canons, who are 
nominated by the bishop. These latter take no share 
in the revenues and have no duties to fulfil. The 
duties of the working canons are, to reside at least 
three months in every year in the cathedral city, and 
during that time to take the direction of the religious 
services, assisting in them every day, also to watch 
over the state of the edifice, all under the authority 
of the dean. The latter must reside eight months of 
the year in the episcopal city. His functions are, to 
preside over the chapter, to take cognisance of all 
business that concerns it, and to occasionally officiate 
in the cathedral. The intention which predominates 
in the keeping up of these metropolitan establish- 
ments is the maintenance at a certain height of a 
model of public worship so far as it is sanctioned by 
the Anglican rubric. The cathedral should serve as 
a pattern to the other churches of the diocese. Its 
architecture, its ornaments, its services, all should 
tend to direct the tastes and harmony of the cere- 
monies in the more humble edifices, which in every 
way seek to conform to her example, as younger 
sisters to that of an elder, whom they look upon as 
the pride and star of the family. 

There is another practical advantage in the cathe- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 127 

dral system. It gives an opportunity to Government 
of rewarding the services of certain distinguished 
members of the Anglican church ; and Ave must not 
lose sight of the fact, that the capitular clergy form, as 
it were, the staff-officers of the church. Their duties 
confer certain honours, and these are not, like most 
honours, without profit attached to them. The annual 
income of the Dean of Durham is 3000/. ; that of the 
Deans of Westminster, Canterbury, and St. Paul's is 
2000/. each ; the incomes of the other deans of the 
old foundations reach 1000/. a-year; and that of the 
deans of the new foundation fluctuates between 1000/. 
and 1500/. The canons receive from 350/ to 1000/. 
per annum. It is very true that many of these eccle- 
siastical dignities are especially accessible to patron- 
age and high birth ; but they are also in many cases 
awarded to talent. Many of the deans and canons 
nominated during these last few years have been men 
of universally-recognised merit, not as divines only, 
but also as authors and scholars. Canterbury, as one 
might expect, presents to us a most complete model 
of this capitular organisation. 

On the north of the cathedral stands the chapter- 
house, a fine building opening into the cloisters, and 
erected by Prior Chillenden about the year 1400. 
The dean* presides over the chapter, that is, the 



* The word Dean comes from the Latin decanus, no doubt 
because deans were at first appointed to superintend ten canons or 
prebendaries. 



128 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

assemblage of canons. The latter are divided into 
six major canons and five minor canons. In former 
times, if tradition is to be believed, they all lived 
together in common ; even now their houses are 
grouped closely round the cathedral, in the precincts. 
These houses are mostly old and venerable-looking 
stone buildings arranged according to modern taste, 
and surrounded with gardens overshadowed by the 
cathedral towers, and shaded by great trees, the tops 
of which are pervaded by the oracular voices of the 
rooks. Everything in these calm retreats reminds 
one of their former monastic character, except that 
one may here and there catch sight of the fluttering 
of a female dress, and may hear at intervals the fresh 
and artless laugh of childhood. The Keformation 
has introduced a novel element into these calm and 
verdant seclusions- — I mean the priest's family and 
domestic life.* 

There are besides, attached to the person of the 
archbishop, two or more archdeacons, whom he him- 
self nominates to execute certain functions of sur- 
veillance in his diocese, a vicar-general, chaplains, 
and, in fact, a complete clerical staff. The cathedral 
is regarded as the mother church of the other churches 
in the diocese, and as the centre of the parochial 



* Formerly the chapters had the right of electing the bishop. 
This privilege has been taken away from them, and bishops are 
in the present day nominated by the Crown, in nearly the same 
way as deans. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



129 



system and of religious action. We must also not 
lose sight of the fact that the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury's jurisdiction extends over a whole province, 
that is, over twenty dioceses. One of his principal 
attributes is that of convoking, with the Queen's per- 
mission, the bishops and representatives (or proctors) 
of these various dioceses to a general assembly, over 
which he presides, and which has been called, not 
incorrectly, the Clerical Parliament 



CHAPTER V. 

Convocation ; its origin, and what it has become in course of time 
— Way of convoking and assembling this ecclesiastical as- 
sembly — Proctors — Act of Subscription — The Church Con- 
gress — Brother Ignatius— High Church and Low Church — 
Electoral reform in the Clerical Parliament — The Tractarians 
— Latitudinarians — The Broad Church — Dr. Arnold — Argu- 
ments in favour of a free interpretation of the Bible— Essays 
and Eeviews — Dr. Maurice and Byron's Giaour — Eternity of 
punishment rejected as an impious doctrine — Influence of 
Clergy in the State — What are their political opinions ? — The 
Liberation Society — Kagged churches — Why the working 
classes will not go to the Established churches. 

The right of occasionally placing itself in a position 
to exercise legislative powers is one of the most 
ancient privileges of the Chnrch of England. For 
instance, that which is called the Convocation of the 
province of Canterbury does not owe its origin to 
any concession on the part of the Crown. Convo- 
cation began in very distant times, when Parliament 
itself first pretended to be a deliberative body; and 
it has followed pari passu the destinies of the great 
political assemblies of England. At the epoch of 
the Reformation, Henry VIII. deprived this synod 
of all the power that might at all tend to render it 
dangerous to the State. The clergy were enjoined 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 131 

not to assemble without the consent of the Sovereign, 
and in no way to place themselves in opposition to 
the prerogatives of the Crown and the laws and cus- 
toms of the kingdom. Convocation originally had 
the power to impose taxes on the clergy ; but this 
right was taken away in 1665. The Church con- 
sented to place itself under the authority of the com- 
mon law, that is, to submit, just as the laity do, to 
the measures passed by Parliament. In process of 
time the synod was reduced to a position of merely 
nominal power, magni nominis umbra. This assem- 
bly was still convoked at the opening of each new 
Parliament; it certainly enjoyed, in principle, the 
right of legislating on religious matters, but, in fact, 
it was completely in the hands of the civil authori- 
ties, who coidd always control, and indeed dissolve it, 
at their own pleasure. Scarcely had the representa- 
tives of the clerical body met and commenced their 
deliberations when an order would abruptly come 
from the Crown to them to suspend their labours. 
This state of things went on up to 1860, when seve- 
ral influences were set to work to endeavour to re- 
suscitate this ancient privilege of the Church. These 
great efforts were not altogether unfruitful ; and Con- 
vocation now fills a place in the constitutional system 
of the kingdom. 

In order to assemble the clergy in convocation 
a letter is necessary from the Queen to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. The archbishop sends this 



132 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

mandate to the dean, who then addresses a citation 
to all the bishops of the province. The ecclesiastics 
attending this assembly form two distinct classes; 
those who take their seats by right of dignity, that 
is, because they fill an elevated rank in the Church ; 
and those who are raised to the assembly by right 
of election ; the latter are called proctors, that is, 
delegates. 

As soon as the members of Convocation are as- 
sembled in one of the courts at Westminster, they 
separate into two houses, the Upper House and the 
Lower House. This division at once recals to mind 
the arrangements of the civil parliament, on the 
model of which the clerical parliament is framed. 
The Upper House, composed of bishops, is presided 
over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate and 
Metropolitan ; the Lower House nominates a Pro- 
locutor or Speaker, who is deputed to manage the 
debates. The two houses communicate with each 
other by means of deputations. 

This clerical assembly has principally in view 
the planning out of schemes of laws, which will be 
afterwards submitted by the Government to the ap- 
proval of the House of Commons and the Peers. 
The discussion on the subjects in the " orders for the 
day" opens first in the Lower House ; the members 
there speak freely, either for or against, and when 
the resolutions have been put to the vote, they are 
carried by the Prolocutor, followed by his assessors, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 133 

to the Upper House. There the bishops decide, and 
give a final judgment on them. 

It is then the part of the Government either to 
give the weight of their influence to the measures 
passed by Convocation, or merely to let them drop 
into oblivion. It happens, in fact, that very far 
from all the schemes of law elaborated by the synod 
get even so far as the doors of Parliament ; most of 
them, on the contrary, rest peaceably buried in the 
limbo of the ecclesiastical world. Some years ago 
the learned assembly still deliberated in empty show 
only ; their efforts, as it were, to galvanise a corpse 
were the subject of laughter, even in England. The 
Times, which is not too tender with the clergy, 
although it nobly defends the religion of the State, 
compared Convocation to a maypole, " round which 
a company of old boys, fantastically tricked out, 
performed periodical dances, as long as the autho- 
rity of the State allowed them." The concurrence 
of the Queen, it was said, was necessary in order 
to give life to this official meeting of the clergy, 
and the Queen, for reasons which it is not difficult 
to understand, declined to take a part. And yet how 
much things have changed, even since those days! 

The adoption by the civil authority of a toler- 
ably recent measure* has shown that, in 1865, the 



* This measure renders obligatory the subscription by which 
the young clergyman promises to profess the doctrines of the 
Church of England. 



134 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

long slumbering vigour of Convocation was not quite 
extinct. Encouraged by the success it then met 
with, the institution tried to strengthen itself by 
enlarging the base of its electoral suffrage. Up to 
that time, eighty-two members sat ex officio in the 
Convocation of the province of Canterbury, whilst 
only twenty- five were elected by the chapters, and 
forty-two by the parochial clergy. It was decided, 
that in future the number of proctors, represent- 
ing about ten thousand incumbents, should be equal 
to that of the ex officio members and the delegates 
from the chapters. Some proposed even to extend 
the same right to curates, and thus to introduce a 
sort of universal suffrage into the Church; but this 
measure was rejected as unseasonable. The progress 
which Convocation has made in England during the 
last few years has inspired the High- Church clergy 
with considerable hope, and others with a certain 
extent of mistrust. It is, at any rate, a grave fact, 
that the ancient parliament of the Church of England 
has been trying, under the auspices of a liberal minis- 
try — that of Lord Palmerston — to resuscitate itself, 
and to regain some portion of its long-lost authority. 
These assemblies are not the only ones that bear 
witness to the movement in religious ideas. In a 
country where an unlimited right prevails both of 
meeting and discussion, various liberal associations' 
have laid themselves out to hold certain congresses, 
which have taken place, sometimes in one place, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



135 



sometimes in another. Thus, the scientific congress 
sat a year or two back at Bath ; and the one for 
social science, not long ago, invaded the manufac- 
turing population of Sheffield. Why should not the 
clergy take advantage of the same privilege ? There 
has been, in fact, a Church Congress set on foot for 
some time past, which met in 1862 at Oxford, in 
1863 at Manchester, and in 1864 at Bristol. In 
the year in which I am writing (1865), Norwich 
has been selected for the place of meeting, — an an- 
cient city built on the summit of a hill, crowned 
by the cathedral and an old castle. These numer- 
ously attended meetings make a sudden alteration 
in the appearance of a town, for they bring in their 
train a complete crowd of illustrious visitors, and it 
is curious to see the eagerness that is shown to re- 
ceive them suitably. The mayor opens his recep- 
tion-rooms, the hotels are filled with the curious, 
and even private* houses claim a share in the honour 
of worthily exercising the rites of hospitality. What 
a commotion and what a display there is ! Never 
were there seen at once in the old streets of Nor- 
wich so many bishops, deans, canons, and other 
clerical dignitaries; and yet this city is not unac- 
customed to religious pomp, for in it stands the 
monastery of Brother Ignatius, who has been pretty 
well talked about latterly in England.* 

* As head of a new order of Benedictines, Brother Ignatius 
has endeavoured to renew, under the mantle of Protestantism, 



136 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

An executive committee is meantime busied in 
choosing the various subjects which are to be dealt 
with in the Congress, and in specifying the speakers 
who are to address the meetings. It avoids bring- 
ing into the programme any doctrinal questions; so 
as to bring together, as on a neutral ground, the 
two or perhaps three parties into which the clergy 
are divided. The aim of these meetings is essen- 
tially practical ; they do not turn their minds to con- 
sider what is necessary for the Church to believe, but 
what is necessary for her to do. At last the Con- 
gress is opened in one of the large rooms of the 
city. Most of the stars among the clergy, to what- 
ever order of rank they belong, may be found . as- 
sembled there. On this occasion might have been 
remarked at Norwick the Archbishop of York;* the 
Bishop of Oxford ;f Dr. Harvey Goodwin, Dean of 



what is called in England the mummeries- of the Middle Ages, 
such as processions in the streets, the worship of the divine 
Bambino, the use of incense in churches, &c. 

* Dr. William Thompson, Archbishop of York, was educated 
at Shrewsbury School and at Queen's College, Oxford, was seve- 
ral times nominated select preacher at Oxford, and afterwards 
preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and obtained great success in the pul- 
pit. In 1861 he was consecrated Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, 
and subsequently, in 1863, obtained the archiepiscopal see of 
York, the income of which amounts to 12,000?. a year. As an 
author he is principally known by a logical work entitled Out- 
lines of Thought. 

f Dr. Samuel Wilberforce, born in 1805. His principal works 
are Agathos, h'ucharistica, History of the American Church, and 
The Rocky Island. As Bishop of Oxford (1845) he is, by right, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



137 



Ely, whose talents and energy of character even his 
adversaries admire ; Dr. Alford, Dean of Canterbury, 
one of the most learned men, and one of the most 
eloquent preachers, in the Church of England ; Dr. 
Pusey, who has attached his name to a new form 
of Protestantism ; and many other divines whose pre- 
sence or concurrence would shed a lustre on any 
assembly. 

The Congress, besides, thinks right to strengthen 
itself by admitting a certain number of the laity to 
join in these discussions on the aifairs of the Church. 
Addresses and lectures follow one another for several 
days, embracing a variety of subjects, the importance 
of which can scarcely be denied, which are debated 
by different speakers of opposite opinions. These 
Church congresses have no actual legislative power ; 
but they serve to instil new ideas into the clerical 
mind, and sow the seeds of reforms which may one 
day ripen, when fertilised by the light of public 
opinion. Following the invariable English custom, 
these meetings terminate with a grand banquet, to 
which a very large number of guests are invited by 
the mayor or some other rich personage in the town. 

There is one obstacle which constantly opposes 
itself to the development of Convocation and even of 



Chancellor of the Order of the Garter. The Queen has besides 
nominated him Lord High Almoner. He occupies a most eminent 
position as an orator, both in the House of Lords and also in the 
pulpit and at public meetings. 



]38 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

ecclesiastical congresses; this obstacle is the doctrinal 
division in the Church. We mnst not lose sight of 
the fact that the English clergy are divided into High 
Church and Low Church. This distinction can be 
traced back, we have every reason to believe, to a 
very remote antiquity. It existed in germ even at 
the time when England was still Catholic; but the 
Reformation first gave it any social or political im- 
portance. The High Church is that which, in the 
period from Henry VIII. to William III., was al- 
ways allied to the royal authority and the episcopal 
hierarchy. The Low Church, on the contrary, takes 
its root from the sects of Puritans. We know how 
great were the efforts of these first and obscure re- 
formers to propagate the Bible ; and in the progress 
of time, from those barns and lofts, where a few 
humble votaries assembled for worship at the peril 
of their lives, came forth triumphantly the ascend- 
ancy of their party and the supremacy of Cromwell. 
The Restoration, in its turn, expelled from the 
Church its Puritan element, and drove it back into 
obscurity. This, then, was the state of things when 
William III. disembarked in England. 

It was at this period that the name of High Church 
was first given to the priests who were Nonjurors, 
who refused to acknowledge the right of the Prince 
of Orange to the tin-one of Great Britain, under the 
pretext that James II., although dethroned, was still 
their legitimate sovereign. This appellation of High 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 139 



Church applied to the high idea which these ecclesi- 
astics formed of the dignity of the Church and of 
the extent of its prerogatives. Those, on the other 
hand, who disapproved of the obstinacy of their bre- 
thren, being well known for their moderation towards 
Dissenters, and for the more humble ideas they had 
formed as to the authority of the Church, were ranked 
in what was called, by antithesis, the Low Church. 
The sympathies of the Prince of Orange could not 
for an instant be in doubt between these two religious 
parties. He opened the flood-gates to Puritanism, 
and received into the bosom of the Established Church 
those whom Iris predecessors had set aside. When- 
ever he superseded a bishop or any other ecclesias- 
tical dignitary who proved rebellious to his oath of 
allegiance, he purposely replaced him by one of the 
Low-Church party; and thus it happened, that an 
element, at first so feeble in the clerical body, ac- 
quired, during the reign of William III., a certain 
degree of preponderance. Since that time, the two 
parties have continued to live side by side under the 
same authority ; but how many old grievances have 
been again ripped up ! The question seemed to be, 
who could call up the most vividly the phantoms 
of past hostilities : on one side, the execution of 
Charles I. and the expulsion of the Stuarts ; and on 
the other side, all the reactionary laws under which 
they suffered during the reign of Charles II. The 
latter felt that they were emphatically the children 



140 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

of persecution ; and was it likely that they would 
refrain from hurling at their opponents the epithet 
Papist?* Politics also followed up religion pretty 
closely ; thus the High-Church party were almost 
all Tories, and the Low-Church clergy invariably took 
the side of the Whigs. 

The progress of time has somewhat softened down 
these divisions ; but still they are far from being ex- 
tinct. The Low Church certainly does not now style 
the High Church the " Harlot of Babylon ;" but for 
all this, are they any more reconciled in Christian 
love? Truly, I fear not. They are like two un- 
loving sisters, endeavouring to hide their former 
rivalries under a certain reserve of language and con- 
duct. Whenever the High Church wishes to hide 
its light under a bushel, the Low Church purposely 
holds back. If convocation is the matter in hand, 
Low Churchmen will ask how a provincial assembly, 
as that of Canterbury or York, can embrace the 
whole religious interests of the kingdom, and why 
a convocation is not summoned of the whole Church ; 
and whether a synod, constituted in this way, does 
not form a body representing rather the bishops and 
chapters than the clergy generally. In order to 

* "Walter Scott, in his Life of Dry den, rightly calls attention 
to the fact, that the High- Church party, towards the end of the 
reign of Charles II., had the same interests to defend as the 
Catholics ; they were both drawn together by a common hatred 
of the various Puritan sects, and by a common attachment to the 
Stuart family. 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 141 

answer this last objection, the province of Canter- 
bury thought it best to extend their electoral suf- 
frage; an enemy, they considered, is often more 
dangerous outside than inside a house. They wished, 
therefore, to afford to the Low-Church party the op- 
portunity of admission to this council, and of express- 
ing their views with full liberty. Will they, however, 
respond to this appeal ? This still remains a question. 
For one thing, the minority that they would form on 
the benches of Convocation would be far from a cor- 
rect indication of the real power of the party. 

With regard to the Church Congress, some of 
the Low-Church clergy were present and took a cer- 
tain part in the proceedings ; but it seemed rather in 
obedience to a sense of duty, than from any enthu- 
siasm in the matter. It is in vain that they have 
set aside, at these meetings, all disputed questions on 
dogmatical subjects, and have substituted practical 
questions in their place ; for the Low-Church party 
fear an energetic course of action on the part of 
their opponents quite as much as they dread their 
doctrine. Thus it is that the English clergy find in 
themselves, that is in their divisions, a barrier set 
up, which much limits their means of influence. 

In each of these two parties in England some 
remarkable men are numbered, and each of them 
has latterly had its period of revival. The revival 
of the Low-Church party took place at the end of 
the last and at the beginning of the present cen- 



142 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

tury : at the ' head of the movement were found, 
among others, Cowper the poet, Wilberforce, father 
of the present Bishop of Oxford, and Macaulay, 
father of the historian. The revival in the High- 
Church party became noticeable from 1830 to 1845 : 
the chief agents in it were Dr. Pusey, the fervent 
preacher Newman, since become a Roma^i Catholic, 
and the " poet-priest" Keble. Their doctrines have 
certainly made way in England during the last few 
years, but they have not secured the sympathy of 
the masses generally. The Low-Church party is, if 
not the most numerous, at least the most popular, 
and the favours of a liberal government more gene- 
rally have a leaning towards this religious section. 

What, then, are the essential points which form 
the ground of difference between these two classes 
of religious opinion ? High Churchmen reproach the 
other party with the narrowness of their views, their 
anomalous Calvinism, and their comparative inaction 
in the midst of society. "Instead of quietly sitting 
down," they urge, " amid the decay of the Church, 
and weeping over the errors of the times, why do not 
you exert yourselves, and endeavour to improve the 
age in which you live ?" 

Low Churchmen, on the other hand, impute to 
their opponents, that they yield, according to their 
tastes, to two very opposite tendencies, one leaning 
towards Romanism, the other towards Rationalism. 
The truth is, that High Churchmen admit, as a 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 143 

scarcely secondary authority, the validity of tradi- 
tion, as represented by the Fathers and (Ecumeni- 
cal Councils ; whilst Low Churchmen recognise the 
authority of the Holy Scriptures only. The former 
place high importance on the ecclesiastical hierarchy, 
on sacraments, rites, rubrics, and ceremonies ; the 
latter care but little for all these things, and give 
their principal attention to the cultivation of preach- 
ing. Cranmer, wishing to conciliate these two par- 
ties, composed the Book of Common Prayer in the 
reign of Edward VI., which book, with some slight 
alterations introduced in the times of Elizabeth and 
James I., still forms at the present day the bond of 
union in the Church of England. The two parties, 
however, both interpret it in their own way. 

Where the antagonism of the two lines of doc- 
trine is more visibly evident is in church architec- 
ture. The successors of the old Puritans look upon 
a church more as a place for preaching than as a 
house of prayer ; everything, therefore, must be 
sacrificed to the pulpit and to the placing of the 
audience. High Churchmen, on the contrary, seek 
to give to their edifices a character of grandeur and 
beauty. According to the general opinion in Eng- 
land, the taste for ornamentation has been carried 
rather too far in some cases; images, processions, 
lights, and flowers, are all foreign innovations, which 
have much scandalised Protestants of the good old 
sort. Certain doubtful practices — confession re- 



144 KELIGIOUS LIFE IF ENGLAND. 

established under another form ; monastic houses both 
for men and women, founded under the auspices of 
the reformed faith, — all these things have excited 
a cry of alarm against the Sacerdotalists and Tracta- 
rians.* Whither are they going? Is it not mere 
Romanism, which, under another name, is seeking 
to again entangle Great Britain in her snares ? The 
echo of these complaints made its way at last even 
to the ears of the House of Commons. The danger 
was, no doubt, much exaggerated ; the chief agents 
in the movement energetically disavowed the inten- 
tions which were attributed to them; but the ani- 
mosity on both sides has only increased, and public 
opinion has looked to the Low-Church party to form 
a rampart against the real or imaginary progress of 
a foreign style of worship. 

Those High Churchmen who, by their published 
or well-known opinions, defy the suspicion of idola- 
try, do not always escape the imputation of infidelity, 
which is the name given here to every shade of 
rationalism. Under the equally strange epithet of 
Latitudinarians the Low- Church organs follow up 
with their attacks those divines whose opinions ap- 
pear to the former to spread beyond the limits of 

* The epithet Sacerdotalist is naturally applied to an ally of 
the priest (sacerdos), the importance and privileges of whose office 
the Puseyites are accused of exaggerating. As to the term Trac- 
tariariy it arose from the Tracts for the Times ; a kind of col- 
lective publication, to which Dr. Pusey, Newman, and Keble were 
the principal contributors. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 145 

orthodoxy. For it must be observed, that this inde- 
pendence of outward signs, and simplicity of public 
worship, which more or less distinguish Low Church- 
men, does not always represent any great extent of 
moral liberty. Their minds very often emancipate 
themselves from the control of ecclesiastical formu- 
laries only to succumb to the very letter of a book, 
or to some tenet as painful as that of predestination." 

Between these two parties a third has been formed, 
which, under the name of the Broad Church, turns 
its attention especially to the way in which the Scrip- 
tures should be looked at. All the various sections of 
the Anglican clergy profess to believe in the Inspira- 
tion of the Bible ; but what are we to understand by 
these words ? Some will have it that this book was 
written as well as dictated by supernatural influence ; 
in this case the Hebrew authors would have been the 
passive vehicles of words and ideas which were in no 
measure their own, — the trumpet, as it were, through 
which the Holy Spirit breathed out its revelation. 
Others (and this is the ground taken by the Broad 
Church) regard the Scriptures as the result of divine 
inspiration humanly recorded. But in admitting the 
participation of man, do we not also admit the pos- 
sibility of error? This designation of Broad Church 
was first given by the Edinburgh Review to a party 
among the clergy, the founder of which appears to 
have been the celebrated Dr. Arnold. The chief men 
of this school are at the present time Dr. Milman and 

L 



146 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Dr. Stanley : the former Dean of St. Paul's, and the 
latter of Westminster. 

Some recent publications have very much ex- 
tended the limits of this movement. Let us, how- 
ever, hear what can be said in their own defence by 
those who adhere in every way to the free interpreta- 
tion of Scripture. " It is a book which philosophers 
in every age have admired, on which, not only our 
Church, but a great portion of the social edifice in 
England, is based. Take care ! for the moment that 
this base gives way, that moment will the whole 
framework of religion, and a portion of our civil 
institutions also, fall in ruin. And how can it fail to 
give way, undermined as it is from day to day by 
the progress of science and historical criticism ? The 
worst service that you can render in such a case to 
the book you set yourselves up to defend, is to place 
it on the high ground of infallibility. The slightest 
geological, chronological, or topographical error must 
destroy all faith in that literal divine inspiration 
which you try to enforce. We must either maintain 
that science is mistaken, or we must accuse the sun, 
which dares to be immovable, and the earth, which 
dares to revolve, and say to all nature, Thou hast lied ! 
Have more wisdom ; act like the Deluge, and abandon 
to error that which belongs to error ; and at least save 
out of the Bible that type of high morality which is 
still appropriate to a Christian community." 

These attacks, proceeding as they do from the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 147 

very bosom of the clergy, have been a heavy blow 
to the Church of England. It would be a mistake, 
however, to suppose that the event was unexpected. 
In 1861, Dr. Temple,* being appointed by the Uni- 
versity to preach before the British Association of 
Science when they met at Oxford, delivered a sermon 
which subsequently appeared at the beginning of the 
celebrated publication called Essays and Reviews, under 
the title of the Education of the World. The somewhat 
menacing air of the preacher, the bold challenge which 
he threw down to his colleagues, the uneasiness of his 
audience, — all betokened the coming storm. Twice 
the thunderbolt fell ; for after the Essays and Reviews 
came Bishop Colenso's work on the Books attributed 
to Moses. It would perhaps be scarcely believed in 
France, that these acts of hostility, directed as they 
were against the infallibility of the Bible, made leg's 
impression on the Church of England than they did 
on some of the dissenting sects. These latter believe, 
for the most part, in the verbal inspiration of Scrip- 
ture ; this has ever been one of their characteristic 
tenets, and the very foundation of their worship, 
which even across the Channel has acquired the 
epithet of bibliolatry. It was, therefore, in this quar- 
ter especially that the most lively and painful impres- 
sion was made. 

The Church of England, however, did not delay 



Head Master of Rugby School. 



148 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

with her reply.* According to her views, the divi- 
nity of these writers is entirely negative ; they have 
told us what they do not believe, but they have left 
us in the dark as to the nature of their positive faith. 
People are looking to them for a doctrine and a de- 
finite result; and as long as they keep silence on tins 
head, and still retain their positions in the Church, so 
long will their opposition obtain but slender moral 
authority. Perhaps it would have been better to have 
held fast to this argument ; but proceedings had been 
already entered upon. After various turns of fortune, 
the accused authors were finally acquitted by the 
Privy Council, the tribunal of last resort in England in 
such cases. Who, therefore, can fail to perceive that 
the Church has no means of punishing any opinions 
she may disapprove of, either by her own institutions 
or by the help of the State ? The lay element taking, 
at this point, a share in the religion of the State, is 
unwilling to re-inaugurate an era of persecution ; and 
in this view it is upheld by a considerable number of 
the clergy. Toleration, in the Church of England, is 
neither the result of enlightenment, nor yet an effort 
of Christian charity ; it is the condition of its exist- 
ence. Liberty was one of the results achieved by the 
Reformation, and such achievements impose their 

* These answers may be read in a collective work entitled 
Aids to Faith. There has also been publishing, since 1860, under 
the patronage of the Speaker of the House of Commons, a Com- 
mentary on the Bible, at which some of the most eminent of the 
clergy have been working. 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 149 

obligations. The Protestant martyrs are appealed to, 
and the memory of the divines burnt in the wood- 
piles in Smithfield is invoked, when the more or less 
latitudinary members of the clergy claim the right of 
thinking for themselves. And who would venture to 
stifle this voice ? Not those, at least, who, in matters 
of religious faith, prefer differences with liberty to 
uniformity with bondage. 

The eternity of punishment is a dogma which has 
lately much occupied the attention of some of the 
bold minds in the Church of England. At their head 
is the Rev. F. Maurice, who has been the means of 
conferring many benefits on the working classes.* 
He does not believe in a Christian hell; but what 
testimony does he bring forward on which to base 
his opinion ? Curious to say, the authority of a poet 
whose name is no favourite in devout ears. Reading 
the Gfiaour, he says, taught him more on this subject 
than all the threats thundered from the pulpit. Byron 
there speaks of one of those moments which 

" gather in that drop of time 
A life of pain, an age of crime : 
Though in Time's record nearly nought, 
It was Eternity to Thought." 



* Professor of Divinity at King's College in 1846, he was 
compelled to quit this post in consequence of the hostility excited 
by his religious opinions. He is now Incumbent of St. Peter's, 
Marylebone. We are indebted to him for the foundation of the 
Working Men and Women's Colleges — admirable institutions for 
the education of the adult working classes. 



150 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

And it is in this sense that the learned divine explains 
the mysteries of another life. " The Infinite," as 
Byron goes on to say, 

" Which in itself can comprehend 
Woe without name, ot hope, or end," 

— all this is included in the lightning-flash of thought 
which conscience renders so terrible. In short, the 
soul of man is so constituted that it can embrace all 
suffering in an eternal moment. We are certainly 
led in this very far from the material torments of a 
Gehenna of fire. Thanks to the toleration and elas- 
ticity of doctrine which, after all, characterises the 
Church of England, Mr. Maurice has been able to 
hold his place on the extreme limits of orthodoxy. 

A portion of the clergy, however, have lately 
become startled at this free inquiry after truth. 
Finding neither in the civil law nor in ecclesiastical 
discipline any means whatever to touch certain doubts 
hidden behind official positions, they formed the idea 
of trying to bind the conscience more closely to the 
creed of the Established Church ; thence have arisen 
the efforts in the Convocation of Canterbury to make 
their faith a point of honour with young ministers. 
Evidently they had a right to act thus : but it is asked 
if this be the proper remedy for the evil. Restrictive 
measures may cause hypocrisy ; but will they insure 
belief? Listen, for instance, to the public confession of 
certain clergymen who have opposed this very dogma 
of the eternity of punishment : " They have believed 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 151 

in it," they will tell you, " for some time ; but a day 
came when they tlnew off, as if in spite of them- 
selves, tins hideous dream of their youth, the night- 
mare of an unpitying God ; the world then seemed 
brightened for them, as if by a new light — by a ray 
of love which, even in the punishment of the wicked, 
seemed to point out heavenly traits of goodness." The 
Church of England is infected, it must be well under- 
stood, with the malady of the age, even in its high 
places {oriens ex alto). But we must not conclude 
from this, that religious feeling is weakened in Eng- 
land. Where, on the contrary, shall we find a clergy 
more devoted to their duties, and a more believing 
people? And how does this come to pass? It is 
thus : those forms of religion which number among 
them the fewest unbelievers are precisely those which 
demand the fewest sacrifices of reason and liberty of 
conscience ; this is, doubtless, the true answer to the 
apparent contradiction which we have just pointed 
out. 

The English clergy being in such close relation 
to the State, it is important to inquire the nature of 
the influence they exercise in it.* In order to do 
this, we must take account of the very origin of the 
Reformation. Among all the obstacles which oppose 



* This must be understood as applying to indirect influence 
only, for clergymen are prohibited from sitting in the House of 
Commons. Up to the month of February 1865 they could not 
even practise at the Bar. 



152 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

themselves to the establishment of political liberty in 
any nation, the gravest and most difficult to upset is 
the subjugation of the intellect to certain religious 
dogmas. In the great moral revolution of the 16th 
century, in which the English clergy took so distin- 
guished a part, divines laid it down as one of their 
chief aims to emancipate the feeling of self-independ- 
ence. All free rights have the property of develop- 
ing others ; and who doubts, at the present day, that 
the prevailing respect for individual liberty, among 
our neighbours across sea, was one of the achieve- 
ments of Protestantism ? The very same principle of 
inquiry which laid bare the foundations of religious 
belief brought its lights to bear on the examination 
and discussion of the first principles of civil govern- 
ment. It was soon discovered that the roots of 
despotism lay hid in a sort of hallowed ignorance, but 
that they had no foundation on any divine authority. 
Thus it is that the English constitution has, without 
difficulty, been able to form a close alliance with the 
religious order. The latter, in a certain sense, sanc- 
tifies the State, without either cramping or contra- 
dicting it. It was well said, that " the union of Church 
and State was never intended to make the Church 
political, but to make the State religious." 

The English clergy, taken as a body, are Conser- 
vative ; but we must not confine this word to the 
narrow sense in which it is used in other countries. 
Protecting the institutions of England involves, with- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 153 

out doubt, the perpetuation of certain privileges, but, 
at the same time, defends political rights and liber- 
ties. This common tendency in the Church generally 
in no way binds the opinions of its individual minis- 
ters. Whilst the Northern States of America were 
carrying on that heroic contest against the South, the 
very echo of which made the blood run quicker in 
the veins of old Europe, some English clergymen 
loudly declared their views against slavery, and offered 
public prayers for the success of the Federal cause. 
Among the Liberals in the English clergy, I might 
instance Dr. Hook, Dean of Chichester,* and many 
others, who readily lend their aid to the reforms re- 
quired by the present state of society. At the time 
when the election of Stuart Mill for Westminster was, 
perhaps, rather threatened by unjust imputations of 
atheism, it was from the University of Oxford — that 
great centre of orthodoxy — that numerous eloquent 
voices were raised to defend the illustrious thinker 
against the attacks of the Record.^ One fact only 
may seem to give the lie to this enlightened liberalism 
of the clergy ; it is, the last election at this very Uni- 
versity of Oxford. And yet, if I am rightly informed, 



* Author of an excellent pamphlet, entitled On the Means 
of rendering more efficient the Education of the People, which 
attracted public attention by the boldness of its views and the 
independence of its talent. 

f Organ of the Low Church party, just as the Guardian is of 
the High Church, and the Nonconformist of the Dissenters. 



154 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Mr. Gladstone's candidature would not have been 
unsuccessful, if it had depended on the votes of the 
learned professors and others connected with the 
University; but he had as his victorious opponents 
the other members of the body, who, scattered all 
over England, mostly occupy country livings. These 
latter are more accessible to prejudice and the local 
influence of aristocracy , and also more suspicious than 
the others are of the impulses of the age. 

It is, however, true that Tory principles are wont 
to rely upon the Church as one of the pillars of the 
State. Some clergymen blame even Mr. Disraeli for 
having torn aside the veil of the temple with too bold 
a hand, and having too readily exhibited the use made 
of religion as an aid to government, for he thus com- 
promises that which he would wish to serve. Among 
this confusion of duties and powers, a party has lately 
arisen in England which has made itself known under 
the name of the Liberation Society. The leaders of 
this party — and there are some eminent men among 
them — wish, on the contrary, to relax the bonds 
which unite Church and State. It is difficult to fore- 
tell what fortune may be reserved in the future for 
these attempts ; but at the present day, the real au- 
thority of the Church of England is based more 
on belief than on law; as long as she keeps on her 
side the sympathies of enlightened intellect, and re- 
spects the liberty of opinion, so long also will she 
be able to defy every tempest. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



For some years past the clergy have been much 
engrossed in trying to draw the working classes into 
their churches. Have these efforts, however, been 
crowned with much success, at least in large towns ? 
Most assuredly not; and they have still to seek out 
the causes for an absence which they so rightly de- 
plore. Dr. Pusey attributes the absence of the work- 
ing classes from public worship to the old system 
which still rules in the internal arrangement of 
Protestant churches. The scats are let by the year, 
or occupied, in right of seniority, by parishioners of 
the upper, or at least the middle classes. In both 
cases the poor stand but a bad chance. " Is this," 
cries Dr. Pusey, "what one has a right to expect 
from a religion which proclaims the equality of all in 
the presence of a common Father ?" The eloquent 
professor goes still farther, and cites facts. Some 
years ago a church was provided with pews only, and 
these pews were always empty ; they were done away 
with, open free seats being substituted for them, 
under the same clergyman the same church was then 
filled from one end to the other. This experiment 
appears decisive ; and yet is it quite certain that the 
arrangement of the seats is the only cause which drives 
away from the churches the most numerous class in 
England? There is room for doubt on this point. 
On Sundays, persons in easy circumstances delight to 
display with a certain emulation all their best attire ; 
how would it look for the poor to come there and 



156 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

expose their rags? This objection has appeared so 
serious a one, that the idea was started in 1850 to 
establish in London ragged churches, on the same plan 
as the ragged schools which already existed ; but there 
was something ungracious in the epithet itself, which 
prevented this attempt from meeting with success. 

The truth always remains the same, that, in the 
very edifices where the voice of the Gospel is so loudly 
raised against the worship of Mammon, the hum- 
ble city workman feels himself oppressed under the 
weight of an entire social system that appears to him 
to be in direct contradiction of the words of the 
great Master. All in vain have they softened down 
the sense of certain texts ; in vain, thanks to a miracle 
of scholastic subtlety, have they succeeded in passing 
the camel through the needle's eye ; but the question 
is still unsolved, how we can reconcile the excessive 
distinction of ranks with the spirit of a book which 
preaches self-denial and humility in all. The Refor- 
mation desired to bring the priest nearer to the people, 
in order to bring men nearer to God ; but birth, edu- 
cation, and fortune still create a gulf between the 
Protestant minister and the most humble portion of 
his congregation. As to the bishop, he is too great a 
man, and is too far removed from the people, to exer- 
cise any very lively influence over them. And then 
also, behind this ecclesiastical hierarchy, there is a 
civil hierarchy as well, forming a double Jacob's 
ladder, very high and very formidable to him who 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 157 

is on earth. Poverty acts as a means of isolation, and 
this isolation seems still increased amid the ffilded 
crowd which frequent many of the churches. We 
have sufficient reasons here to explain why it is that 
a large portion of the working classes either entirely 
refrain from taking any part in public worship, or 
else, on Sundays, attend the chapels of some of the 
Dissenting denominations. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Dissenting denominations — Their origin and cause — The In- 
dependents — Religious persecutions — Heretics judged and con- 
demned by heretics — Chief tenets of the Congregationalists — 
One of their chapels — The Baptists — Mr. Spurgeon and his 
Tabernacle — Baptism of adults — The Society of Friends, or 
Quakers — Simplicity of their worship — Character of Quakers 
— Quakerism is decreasing, and why? — Methodists — John Wes- 
ley — Class meetings — Itinerant preachers — Ministry of women 
— The New Church — Swedenborg — How his doctrines came to 
be introduced into England — Unitarians — Their way of look- 
ing at Christianity — Open-air preachers — The prophetess in- 
terrupted by a donkey — Respect paid to liberty of speech 
— The Evangelical Alliance — One of the glories of Protes- 
tantism. 

The great point of difference between the Established 
Church and the thirty-six Christian sects existing in 
England consists in this — that, on one side, the reli- 
gious revolution took place by means of the govern- 
ment ; on the other, through the people. Amid the 
disturbance of all the ancient tenets, the Anglican 
Church adhered to the old principle of authority. The 
Dissenters, on the contrary, persisted in considering 
the king as a kind of shadow of the Pope, and laid 
claim to the principle of self-government in matters of 
faith. The State religion for some time looked upon 
it as its duty to oppose these tendencies, which were 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 159 

called anarchical. In 1559 the Act of Uniformity 
visited with severe punishment all those who absented 
themselves, without reasonable cause, from the places 
of public worship recognised by law. The objects of 
persecution of yesterday became in their turn per- 
secutors also ; and this is the way of the world. 

Towards the end of the 16th century, however, 
the Presbyterians in Scotland, and the Independents 
in England, began to spring up, their growth being 
developed by the free interpretation of Scripture, and 
the right of inquiry. The head of the latter party 
appears to have been Robert Brown, of an ancient 
family, and related to Burleigh, the Lord Treasurer. 
He was an enthusiastic and impetuous being, going 
about preaching from town to town, principally in 
the county of Norfolk. After staying three years in 
Zealand, where he founded an Independent church, 
he returned to England (1585). He was confined 
thirty-two times in various prisons on account of his 
religious opinions ; but as the climax to his zeal and 
his exertions, he ended by submitting to the Esta- 
blished Church, and obtained as his recompense the 
rectory of Oundle, in Northamptonshire. The defec- 
tion of their chief did not, however, paralyse his dis- 
ciples ; for in 1593 Sir Walter Raleigh estimated the 
number of the Broivnists (the name then given to 
these sectaries) at 20,000, without counting, he adds, 
the women and children. They were treated with 
much harshness, and in the reign of Elizabeth many 



160 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

of tliem passed under the hands of the executioner. 
This persecution dispersed the members of the sect, 
and drove many of them away into the Low Coun- 
tries, where they founded various churches, at Am- 
sterdam, Rotterdam, and Leyden. One of the exiles, 
however, returned to London about 1616, and esta- 
blished a chapel in the very heart of that city. During 
the time that the Long Parliament remained in power 
the sect gained ground, and when Cromwell (who was 
himself an Independent) seized the supreme autho- 
rity, he made the great principle of the liberty of 
religious opinions a well-recognised reality. From 
Charles II. to William III. the community of Dis- 
senters had, indeed, to suffer much ; but at the epoch 
of the Revolution they appeared again, hardened and 
invigorated by their scars, as Bossuet remarks. In 
the present day the Independents form one of the 
great branches of English Protestantism. Under the 
more modern name of Congregationalists, they yield 
to no other sect either in number or social import- 
ance. 

What, however, are their distinguishing ideas? 
In the first place, they refuse to admit the principle 
of a national church ; with them the word church 
means simply a congregation, and they consider that 
Christians ought to be free to associate themselves 
together for religious purposes as they think proper, 
and in such a way that every individual may be able 
to judge and approve all that is done by the commu- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 161 

nity. Under this system, an individual always re- 
mains the dictator of his own belief, and all that he 
seeks in a union with other men is a tie which is ne- 
cessary to give force and consistence to their personal 
feelings. As regards religious orders, the Independ- 
ents recognise two classes only of officials, — bishops 
and deacons. But it must be remarked, that by the 
term bishops ministers or pastors are simply meant.* 
The latter have no need for any special ordination ; 
it suffices that they should be called by some con- 
gregation, in order to give them a right to preach 
and administer the sacraments. The usage, however, 
generally is, that the newly-chosen minister should 
be inaugurated by some of his brother pastors in a 
special service, in the course of which he makes, 
before his future congregation, a sort of profession of 
faith. In the choice of a pastor, each church is pos- 
sessed of a perfect autonomy, and finds itself bound 
by no conditions either as to the class or mode of 
education of their future minister ; any person who 
appears to them to be fit is henceforth to assume the 
functions of their pastor. This principle almost al- 
ways undergoes some modifications in practice ; as it 
is found to be advantageous that the ministers should 
be educated men, most of them, at the present day, 



* In their idea, the two words, ep-iscopus andpi'esbi/ter, so often 
met with in the history of the primitive Church, specify one and 
the same person. 

M 



162 EELIGIOUS LIFE EN" ENGLAND. 

receive some preliminary education in one of the 
numerous theological academies or colleges belonging 
to the denomination. 

The right of preaching in religious meetings 
forms by no means any exclusive privilege ; on the 
contrary, any one who possesses the gift is encouraged 
to occasionally exhort the congregation : thus, in fact 
every man is a priest. The Independents refuse to 
Government any right of intervention in their reli- 
gious matters, and make a point of themselves sup- 
porting the expenses of worship. A sort of voluntary 
council, composed of delegates, and known under the 
name of the Congregational Union of England and 
TTales, meets twice every year to organise a system 
of mutual action, without, at the same time, in any 
way prejudicing the principle of the initiative being- 
taken locally. This frail tie suffices to maintain unity; 
and in spite of the fluctuating character of the system 
generally, no important fraction has ever, since their 
origin, become detached from the main body. 

One Sunday evening I went into a chapel situated 
in the Borough-road, in London. The interior of the 
edifice was white and naked, but brilliantly lighted 
with gas ; the seats converged in the form of an 
amphitheatre round the pulpit, in which stood a 
minister dressed as a civilian, only in black. After 
the service was over, every one seemed to meditate ; 
and several speakers of both sexes got up, one after 
the other, just as they felt inspired, to offer up to God 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 163 

a kind of spontaneous address. The gravity of the 
audience, the dead silence broken every now and then 
by these loud apostrophes, the animated fervour of the 
women who spoke, their faces glowing with energy 
under their veils, the bright light from above; — all 
this, in spite of the singularity of the scene, had in it 
an element that was both solemn and affecting; I 
myself felt moved. What a strange country is this, 
at once both practical and mystic, where, even amid 
the dense atmosphere of material interests, and almost 
without any external forms of worship, one can feel 
with an inward thrill that a ray of divine light from 
an invisible spirit- world is passing into the soul ! 

One of the most ancient sects, after the Inde- 
pendents, and also one of the most numerous, is that 
of the Baptists, originating, no doubt, from the old 
Anabaptists. Their rise in England goes back as far 
as 1608, the epoch when their first place of worship 
was established in London. This denomination con- 
siders Baptism as a simple profession of faith on the 
part of him who receives it ; and they maintain that 
this declaration cannot be made by children of 
tender age, not yet enjoying the use of their reason- 
ing faculties ; nor do they allow that it can be made 
for them by godfathers or godmothers, having no 
right whatever to pledge for the future the con- 
science of the new-born child. They therefore ad- 
mit to this rite adults only. And this is not their 
only peculiarity. It appears to them, that the mode 



164 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

in which baptism is administered in other Chnrches 
is in no way in harmony with the custom of the 
primitive Christians. The actual meaning of the 
Greek word, the authority of Tertullian and Gregory 
of Nazianzen, the traditions among the Yaudois and 
the Albigenses — all this, and a great deal more, they 
cite in their favour. According to them, the out- 
ward sign in baptism does not consist in merely 
pouring water upon the head, but in the total im- 
mersion of the whole body in a kind of bath. A 
certain English minister has lately conferred no 
small distinction on the Baptist community. 

Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle ,* an edifice of Grecian 



* Mr. Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, Essex, in 1834, and first 
studied in the town of Colchester. Some of the members of his 
family were Independents, and they endeavoured to induce him 
to enter one of the colleges belonging to this denomination, in 
order to study divinity, and thus prepare for the ministry ; but 
his religious ideas leaned rather towards the Baptists. He there- 
fore joined a congregation of this sect at Cambridge, presided over 
by the Eev. Robert Hall. At the age of seventeen he preached his 
first sermon in the village of Feversham, near Cambridge, and was 
soon well known under the name of " the boy preacher ." Not long 
after, he was called to fulfil the duties of pastor at a little chapel 
at Waterbeach. He went there ; and this chapel — a mere barn — 
was soon filled with hearers, whilst a crowd outside were content 
with merely hearing the sound of his voice. His reputation spread 
as far as London ; and New Park- street chapel in Southwark, where 
the pulpit had been previously filled by Dr. Eippon, claimed the 
services of the young prodigy. In 1853 Mr. Spurgeon appeared for 
the first time before a London public : his success was immense. 
Two years had hardly elapsed before it became necessary to en- 
large the chapel. When the alterations were finished, the building 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 1G5 

architecture, with Corinthian columns, is a striking 
object in the Kennington-road. From the appear- 
ance of the exterior, one would think it was a 
theatre ; and to complete the resemblance, a compact 
crowd forms a queue at the doors every Sunday 
evening, first in front of the iron railing protecting 
the stone-work, and then under the portico. At 
last, at half-past six, the doors open ; every one rushes 
in, and at least three quarters of the space is found 
already filled up by the seat-holders and other privi- 
leged persons. This system of privilege in seats, 
and partial exclusion of the general public, so op- 
posed by many members of the High Church, is 
kept up with extreme strictness in chapels generally. 
Dissenting ministers have certainly very little in- 
ducement to abolish it, for it forms to some extent 
their means of livelihood. In a material point of 
view, which in this case can hardly be said to differ 
much from the religious aspect, the erection of 
buildings like this sometimes turns out an excellent 
pecuniary speculation. 

The interior exactly resembles a concert-hall : it 
contains a pit and two tiers of galleries, one over the 
other, round which rows of lights run, whilst jets 



was still found too small for the congregation. After having for 
some time preached, on the Sunday, in some of the largest concert- 
halls in London, Mr. Spurgeon collected subscriptions to erect 
another immense place of worship, which he himself styled the 
Tabernacle. 



166 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

of gas encircle the capitals of the columns supporting 
the roof, and surmount them like a crown of fire ; no 
religious symbol, however, unless you consider as 
such the dial of a clock, intended no doubt to remind 
Christians of the rapid flight of time. At seven 
o'clock Mr. Spurgeon made his appearance on a 
balcony, or platform surrounded with a balustrade. 
He was clothed in black, and wore a white cravat. 
The most profound silence reigned amid the three or 
four thousand attentive hearers who filled the vast 
hall, even now too small for the reputation of the 
preacher. A short reading out of the Bible, one or 
two hymns, and a prayer — such were the prelimi- 
naries to the sermon. Mr. Spurgeon has much that 
belongs to the actor both in his face, voice, and 
gestures ; he is by turns grave or comic, falling 
sometimes from the sublime to what is grotesque 
and trivial — " sometimes Ezekiel, and sometimes 
Scaramouch ;" still he has undoubtedly founded in 
England a new school of sacred eloquence. Other 
preachers try to imitate him, but with very little 
success. They want the vigorous and pure enun- 
ciation, which controls and sways at its will the im- 
petuous passions of the crowd ; that pungent energy 
which gives to religious controversy all the interest 
of a debating club ; and, above all, that art which 
fascinates the imagination by bestowing on the pul- 
pit all the attractiveness of the drama. Mr. Spur- 
geon has become the subject of caricature on more 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 167 

than one occasion, and he has not been spared by 
the pencil of the English artists.* Like Socrates, 
he has had the honour to have been put on the stage 
while yet alive. These arrows of criticism are 
always directed against talents which may be odd, 
but yet are real ; why, therefore, should he have 
shown the weakness of taking notice of them ? 

Mr. Spurgeon is distinguished by his liberal 
views. On a recent occasion he assisted with his 
great influence the election to Parliament of Mr. 
Thomas Hughes, the celebrated author of Tom Brown s 
School-days. There was nothing to astonish in this 
interference of a dissenting minister in public mat- 
ters, and nothing contrary to conventional ideas ; for 
it must be remembered that civil institutions in 
England have been moulded out of the same metal 
as the forms of religious belief. 

One of the most interesting scenes in the Taber- 
nacle is the baptism of adults, which takes place 
generally on some Thursday evening after the service. 
About twenty candidates for the rite are grouped to- 
gether on a platform occupying one of the ends of the 
hall, under the pulpit. The young girls are dressed in 
white, and wear caps fitting closely round the head, 



* Mr. Spurgeon used to be represented, three or four years 
ago, under the form of a gorilla, in allusion to a celebrated dis- 
pute which took place in England about this man-resembling ape, 
in whom the orator refused, as he said, " to acknowledge one of 
his ancestors." 



168 EELIGIOUS LIFE Ds T ENGLAND. 

and set off with a border of lace. Their long robes 
hanging down in straight folds, with a sort of pe- 
lerine covering their shoulders ; their modest and 
meditative air — everything in their costume «.nd atti- 
tude calls to mind the saintly statues which one sees 
in ancient churches. The men are dressed in a sort 
of dressing-gown, with a white cravat or collar. In 
the middle of the platform a reservoir of water stands 
open, on the edge of which are placed two deacons 
in every-day dress. Mr. Spurgeon, invested for 
this occasion with a long clerical robe with flowing 
sleeves, stands hidden up to his waist in the water in 
the tank. Now comes the neophyte's turn. One of 
the young girls first goes down the steps into the 
water ; the minister, holding her by the arm, ad- 
dresses her as follows : " According to thy profession 
of faith in Jesus Christ, and by thy own desire, I 
baptise thee in the name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost." At the same time he immerses her in 
the water. The same ceremony is repeated with the 
other sisters ; and as each of them in turn remounted 
the steps of the tank, dripping with water, one of the 

deacons threw over her shoulders a sort of mantle. 

7 

and she was led away into an adjacent room by a 
female appointed to this duty. It was in the month 
of January 1865, and the water was necessarily 
very cold ; so I rather trembled at the idea of young 
girls being subjected to such an ordeal ; but as far 
as they were concerned — warmed no doubt by re- 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 1G9 

ligious enthusiasm — they appeared to show neither 
dread nor even hesitation. This ceremony of baptism 
by immersion has altogether something rather im- 
posing about it ; and so great is the respect shown by 
the English people for all the forms of worship, that 
even those who attended out of mere curiosity seemed 
to enter into it with great tlioughtfulness. " Thev 
come to be amused, and they remain to pray," said 
Mr. Spurgeon, with perhaps too much confidence. 

But who are those serious-looking men, who may 
be seen Sunday after Sunday, all clad in a peculiar 
and similar fashion, and gravely bending their steps 
to their meeting-house? They are those who are 
vulgarly called Quakers, but who themselves give to 
their sect the appellation of the Society of Friends. 
Their founder was George Fox, born in 1624. He 
was the son of a poor weaver, and was bound ap- 
prentice to a shoemaker ; but, carried away by the 
force of religious ideas, he one day ran away from 
his master's house, and took to running about the 
country like a hermit, clad, if not in camel's hair, at 
least in a leathern doublet. With no other com- 
panion, he fasted, and wandered about in desert 
places ; sleeping in the day-time in the hollow trunk 
of a tree ; during the night he traversed the fields, 
like one possessed with the demon of melancholy. 
At the age of twenty-two he began publicly to 
preach his doctrines. He considered that the Re- 
formed Church had even yet preserved too many 



170 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

human institutions in her forms and ceremonies, and 
therefore determined to pass by the whole system of 
established worship, and to go back to divine inspi- 
ration as the purest fountain-head. He looked also 
upon certain forms of social politeness as being con- 
taminated with superstitious respect, and therefore 
would not take off his hat to any one, great or small : 
he thee'd and thou'd all the world, both rich and 
poor. The whole time from 1648 to his death, 
which took place in 1691, was spent by him in 
travelling and religious controversies, except that 
period in which he was in prison. He several times 
visited the Continent, and in 1661 set sail for the 
English colonies in America. Twice he passed some 
time in the Low Countries, where his doctrines took 
deep root. 

This, then, was the man who determined the first 
principles of the sect. The Society of Friends do 
not require from its members any profession of faith ; 
they have scarcely any peculiar tenets, and their sys- 
tem of management is by synods or meetings. The 
peculiar features that characterise them are a pro- 
found belief in the direct influence of the Holy Spirit 
over the soul of man, and a literal interpretation of 
many of those Divine commands which other Chris- 
tians are content to understand generally. As the 
names we give to the months of the year and the 
days of the week are derived from pagan sources, 
the Friends refuse to use them ; and they are there- 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 171 

fore in the habit of saying "first month" or "second 
month 11 instead of January or February ; and u first 
day" or "second day" instead of Sunday or Monday. 
If litigious disputes arise among them, Quakers are 
not permitted to have recourse to the ordinary tri- 
bunals, but are compelled to submit their differences 
to the arbitration of two or three of the brethren. If 
either of the two parties interested refuse to abide by 
the decision of the arbitrators, they may be excluded 
"from society" by the meeting to which they belong, 
which assembles every month. Truth being in their 
eyes one of the first of Christian virtues, and as they 
also attach a literal authority to the Divine command 
which says " Swear not at all," they maintain that 
every man ought to be believed on Ins simple word, 
and, as far as they are concerned, passively resist 
any imposition of an oath. Their resistance in this 
respect has been the means of bringing on them some 
odious persecutions ; but in the present day their 
simple affirmation is received as valid in courts of 
justice and in governmental business. Their sacred 
horror of war is very well known, and they oppose 
with the same energy any attempt against liberty of 
conscience. 

Their chapel, or, more properly, their meeting- 
place, is generally a large hall without any adorn- 
ment but cleanliness, with whitewashed walls, a floor 
carefully swept, and wooden benches, on which all sit 
together without distinction either of rank or fortune. 



172 . RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 

Iii the library the archives of the Society figure in 

several volumes. Their worship is entirely imma- 
terial : they worship G-od in spirit at least, if not in 
truth. They have no forms of prayer, no fasts, and 
no thanksgivings : and as they maintain that all the 
ancient symbols were abolished by the new law. they 
admit no Baptism but that of the Spirit, and their 
Communion is an inward act of the soul without any 
outward and visible sign. In their meetings both men 
and women, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, 
are equally allowed to address the congregation : just 
as they feel inspired. A gathering of very taciturn 
people is sometimes styled a " Quakers' meeting :" 
and it is the fact, that before anyone breaks silence 
in these conventicles, he must feel himself " moved 
by the Spirit ;" and occasionally the Spirit seems tardy 
in its inspiration, and then they quietly wait in deep 
meditation. There are, however, elders who super- 
intend the course of the addresses, but only for the 
sake of maintaining order. Even marriage itself is 
celebrated without the intervention of any priest. If 
one of the ••members of Society" intends to take a 
wife, he informs the men's meeting to which he 
belongs: his ••intended"' does the same on her part 
to the meeting of her fellows. The consent of the 
parents is then ascertained, and the freedom of the 
contracting parties : if the woman be a widow and 
has children, care is taken to insure their future 
means of existence. All this beino- done, the eno-ao-ed 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 173 



persons present themselves before the Friends' meet- 
ing, who give them a certificate of marriage. Bnrials 
take place with the same simplicity; there is no 
funereal pomp and no wearing mourning ; they even 
abstain from indicating the place of burial by any 
kind of monument or grave-stone. , 

It is quite contrary to their principles to pay for 
any religious duties performed ; every one, in their 
view, ought to impart gratis to others that which he 
has himself received gratis. " Freely ye have re- 
ceived, freely give." Their charitable funds are 
very plentiful, and especially devoted to procuring 
for children the means of education. They have 
scarcely any poor among them, and a Quaker claim- 
ing parish relief is a thing almost unheard of in 
England. When a merchant belonging to the So- 
ciety gets into business difficulties, the " Friends " 
come to his help ; and if his embarrassments are the 
result of misfortune, will prevent his becoming a 
bankrupt. Just as towards men they are charitable, 
so towards animals they show themselves humane. 
One of the old precepts of their doctrine is, " to re- 
quire from the ox only that length of furrow which 
he can plough without taking breath." As one who 
especially practised all the virtues of this sect, we 
must mention Kichard Keynolds, of Bristol, who 
died a few years back. Having amassed a princely 
fortune in the iron trade, he devoted himself and his 
wealth entirely to deeds of benevolence. His dona- 



174 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

tions could never be identified by any signature ; lie 
merely wrote on a blank leaf, " from a friend." A 
lady came to him one day to solicit Ms generosity 
in behalf of a poor orphan, and he liberally bestowed 
it. " When he is grown up," she said, " I will tell 
l^m the name of his benefactor." " You are quite 
wrong," said he ; u do we thank the cloud for the 
rain which it sends us ? Teach him rather to look 
higher, and to thank Him who sends both the cloud 
and the rain." 

The Quaker ought to be specially studied in his 
own home. His house is in general pervaded by a 
quiet air of prosperity. If you ask him the cause of 
his wealth, he will tell you that the merit is due 
above everything to the education that he received. 
From the tenderest age he was constantly taught to 
rightly appreciate the value of time. To provide for 
the material welfare of his family is, with him, more 
than a mere dictate of prudence — it becomes a reli- 
gious duty. But I should like the character of his 
home arrangements to be rightly understood ; every- 
thing is marked by a certain severe elegance ; you 
will see neither pianos, nor any unnecessary furni- 
ture, nor brilliant hangings. The great delight among 
the Quakers, especially in the country, consists in 
their gardens and the culture of rare plants. They 
will willingly make use of their carriage and pair of 
horses ; but they will not adopt armorial bearings. 
The females wear a distinguishing costume — a bon- 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 175 

net of antique shape, generally of a pearl -gray colour, 
a gown of dark gray without either flounces or trim- 
mings, and a shawl wrapped round them, fastened 
very high up. Everything is of an excellent and 
costly material, which, however, does not much at- 
tract the eye. A foreigner, seeing them thus clad, 
would readily take them for Sister's of Charity. 
Quakeresses take as much pains to soften down any 
gay appearance in their toilette as other women do 
to make a show of wealth. Quakers, in their con- 
versation, avoid speaking of any members of their 
family who are no more ; these absent ones belong 
to God and silence only. They are temperate in the 
midst of abundance, and enjoy their riches with 
moderation ; their domestic servants are numerous, 
and kindly treated : they all attend twice every day, 
morning and evening, not at prayers, for Quakers 
never pray with their lips, but at a reading of the 
Bible. They exercise hospitality with dignity and 
generosity, and yet at the same time with modesty. 
This mode of domestic life would not be, I daresay, 
to the taste of everyone ; yet it has its peculiar 
charm. It is the paradise of rest. How, then, can 
we doubt whether the Friends are happy ? Why, we 
can see it in their serene demeanour and transparent 
look. Everything in them, even the very sound of 
their voice, announces peace of mind and evenness 
of disposition. 

The Society of Friends take very little pains in 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAXD. 



making proselytes. Everyone who wishes it cannot 
be a Quaker. I knew a town in Norfolk where a 
soi-disant convert took it into his head to wear the 
"broadbrim" and to attend the meetings: but he 
never succeeded in gaining the confidence of the 
sect. You must be born a Quaker, for you cannot 
become one ; therefore the Society of Friends cannot 
much increase ; indeed, I am told that it is diminish- 
ing. The young Quakeresses very willingly relin- 
quish their old and original costume, and put on 
ribbons, flowers, and even — proh pudor! — jupons 
of crinoline. The young men, on their side, enrol 
themselves among the Volunteers, and thus dare to 
carry a,Tns. And now, at banquets, some Friends 
show the weakness of standing up with the other 
guests when the Queen's health is proposed.* The 
older members among them groan over all this ; and 
bv an increased dignity in their own demeanour en- 
deavour to save the compromised honour of Quaker- 
ism. It is, besides, a matter of remark, that any 
Friends who detach themselves from the Society sel- 
dom or ever join any other religious denomination. 

The general name of Methodists is the designation 
in England for another sect embracing numerous sup- 
porters among the working classes. It is divided into 



* True Quakers remain seated at such a time ; not from any 
spirit of opposition, but in accordance with the usages of their 
sect. In their idea, we may feel respect for persons in the heart, 
hut must not show it by any outward demonstrations. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 177 

several branches, the two principal of which were 
originally grafted on the tree of the Reformation — 
one by Wesley, and the other by George Whitfield. 

John Wesley was born in 1703. At the period 
when he first appeared upon the scene, religion 
among our neighbours was very little more than a 
matter of custom and fashion ; and, as regards mat- 
ters of belief, this epoch might be compared to that 
which in our country preceded the French Revolu- 
tion. Wesley was a fellow of one of the colleges at 
Oxford ; but very early in life, having taken Orders, 
he proceeded to America to preach the Gospel to the 
Indians. On his return to England he began to 
seek out some means to regenerate religion, which 
was dying out in the souls of the people. After 
having for some time struggled " as one that beateth 
the air," he pledged himself to address the multitude. 
He took to preaching in the fields, or along the road- 
side, mounted on a cart, a gate, or a hay-cock ; and 
the people assembled from all the surrounding neigh- 
bourhood to hear him. His preaching was clear, 
simple, and convincing ; and it moved the multitude 
like a field of corn shivering in the breeze. The 
churches were closed to him on account of the pecu- 
liarity of his doctrines ; so he took for his temple the 
vaulted arch of heaven ; and in these open-air assem- 
blies the voices of fifty thousand people, singing the 
hymns composed by himself, were wont to mount up 
like the rush of mighty waters. The master and his 

N 



178 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

disciples were both persecuted ; but the ill-treatment 
which they suffered only served to stir up the fire of 
their enthusiasm. I think this seems one of the sad- 
dest pages in the religious annals of England. The 
Established Church, however, like the English aris- 
tocracy, has one great source of strength ; she can 
see how to take advice from her opponents. The pas- 
tors acknowledged the fact that they had too much 
neglected their flocks, and it was the voice of John 
Wesley which awakened them from their long-pro- 
tracted lethargy ; and this was partly his intention, 
for he wished to act upon the Church, as well as on 
those sections which had become detached from it. 

At the present time the sect of Wesleyan Metho- 
dists forms in England one of the most powerful 
branches of Dissent. There is but little as regards 
points of doctrine to separate them from the State 
Church ; but they manage very differently in their 
arrangements for public worship. There are two 
kinds of preachers — one class being ministers, and 
the other laymen — who provide for the spiritual wants 
of the Methodist congregations in each "round" or 
division for religious purposes. The ministers are 
devoted entirely to the sacred work, and are paid by 
funds raised for this purpose in the "classes" or con- 
gregations.* Grood care is taken, however, that they 



* These classes are rightly considered as the hase of the Me- 
thodist system. They are composed of about twelve persons, and 
each has its leader — a layman elected at a lay meeting. Each 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 179 

do not get rich by means of the Gospel. One descrip- 
tion of ministers among them have received the name 
of itinerant preachers. They are not attached to any 
chapel in particular, but, on the contrary, travel 
about, sowing the word from pulpit to pulpit; it is 
very rarely that they preach two Sundays running 
at the same place. It is reckoned that there are 
nearly twelve hundred itinerant preachers in Great 
Britain. The lay or local preachers, on the other 
hand, are not remunerated by the brotherhood. They 
are generally employed in some profession, some- 
times even in manual labour, and have a chapel as- 
signed them for the Sunday, in which they exercise 
ministerial functions. These unlearned orators have 
a sort of eloquence of their own ; and they endeavour 
by their energetic and uncultivated oratory to awaken 
in the hearts of their hearers the dull chords of reli- 
gious feeling. It is generally the case that the im- 
pression which they make on their congregation is 
considerable ; and this is easily perceptible from the 
deep-murmured groanings which proceed from the 
agitated heart. 

Even females are not excluded from public minis- 
try ; and a young girl of seventeen has lately drawn 
together crowds in certain Methodist chapels. Be- 
sides Sunday, which they keep in fear and trembling, 



member of the class, except in case of extreme poverty, deposits 
at least a penny a week in the funds of the society, by way of 
contribution. 



180 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

the Wesleyans have some other peculiar religious 
festivals ; such as the love-feasts, which take place at 
certain intervals, and also the watch-night, which is 
held the last night of the old year, both to hail the 
new year, and also to impress their minds with the 
idea of the shortness of time. Tea-parties, at which 
they have been known to bring together as many as 
two thousand persons, also play a considerable part 
in the arrangements of this body. The amount that 
they collect by donations and subscriptions is really 
marvellous. At the time of the Wesleyan Jubilee, a 
few years back, they got together a sum of from 
300,000/. to 400,000/. When we consider that a 
very large portion of this money comes out of the 
pockets of the poor, we are bound to acknowledge 
the force of doctrines which can inspire such devo- 
tion. 

It would be needless to follow out these religious 
denominations into all their subordinate divisions, 
and thus to pass in review all the sects which exist 
in England. We must, however, notice the New 
Church founded on the theological works of Sweden- 
borg. These doctrines were first introduced into 
England by two clergymen of the Church of Eng- 
land, Thomas Hartley and John Clowes, who trans- 
lated into English the Arcana Ccelestia (Heavenly 
Secrets). In 1783, eleven years after the death of 
the celebrated Swedish visionary, there was an ad- 
vertisement inserted in the newspapers, pointing out 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 181 

a place of rendezvous for any proselytes to his ideas. 
Five persons attended, and formed a sort of religious 
meeting. In 1787 the number of believers amounted 
to seventeen ; and it was about this time that the 
arrangements of this new worship were settled. We 
see here how new sects spring up in England. Any 
man, or any group of men, wishing to establish some 
new religious system, who can find proselytes enough 
to pay the expenses of a place, and of the services in 
it, are quite at liberty to open a chapel. 

The Swedenborgians, or members of the New 
Church, meet in London, near the British Museum, 
in a good house, the lower portion of which is used 
as a bookseller's shop, where they publish energeti- 
cally all the works both of the master and his dis- 
ciples. Their conviction is that the Scriptures are to 
be interpreted in two senses ; one a natural, and the 
other a spiritual sense. The natural sense is that 
in which it has been understood by other Christian 
Churches, whilst the spiritual sense was only made 
known for the first time by the Apostle of Stockholm, 
to whom the privilege had been given to converse 
with angels and spirits. The rites of the New Church 
differ but very little from those which are practised 
in other Protestant chapels ; but they take a great 
interest in matters concerning the mysteries of a 
future life. According to the Swedenborgians, man 
is to pass, after death, into an intermediate state, 
where he who is inwardly good will receive a fuller 



182 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

dose of truth, which will prepare him for heaven, and 
he who is inwardly wicked will finally reject all en- 
lightenment, and will thus go down for ever among 
the reprobate. They reckon at present but a small 
number of members in their congregations ; but, to 
make up for this, they are mostly educated and re- 
spectable men ; but yet, what ecstatic countenances 
they manifest ! I must not fail to announce it, as I 
fear much doubt exists both in France and England 
on the point, — that the Last Judgment has already 
taken place, and that the " New Jerusalem" is, at the 
'present time, come down upon earth under the form 
of the New Church. This, at all events, is the im- 
portant news which these oracles of mysticism charged 
me to make known. 

The Unitarians are of more ancient origin, al- 
though they are farther removed from the old stock 
of the national faith, and of late years in England 
much attention has been drawn towards them. Their 
doctrines can be traced back as far as Arius, a divine 
of Alexandria, who lived in the fourth century. They 
first appeared in England shortly after the Reforma- 
tion, and Milton himself is said to have been a semi- 
Arian. Unitarians believe, as their name implies, in 
a God one and indivisible. Their ideas made but 
little progress in England up to the commencement 
of the eighteenth century, when a good many who 
were formerly Presbyterian ministers embraced doc- 
trines contrary to the dogma of the Trinity. I was 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 183 

in the habit of attending, for some weeks, the ser- 
vice in a Unitarian chapel near Finsbury-square, in 
London. There they read the Bible publicly, espe- 
cially the New Testament, as a book of high moral 
import, but without believing in the inspiration of 
the sacred authors. In this course of reading, which 
is selected beforehand, they avoid certain doctrinal 
passages, such as those speaking of the fall of man in 
Adam. Christian theology hangs together in one 
connected chain ; if we deny the Fall, is it not also 
denying Redemption? And in fact the Unitarians 
do not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. In 
their view he was the most perfect model on which 
God ever imprinted his image, but "that he was 
constituted in all points as other men." They be- 
lieve that his death was not a sacrifice offered in 
expiation for our sins, but that it was the martyrdom 
of a just man in the cause of truth. They, therefore, 
avoid addressing him in their prayers ; and all that 
they ask of God himself is his light to enlighten 
their souls. In practice they make happiness consist 
in the due performance of the duties of life ; man is 
justified by his works and conscience alone. They 
maintain a belief in immortality ; and they feel that, 
through a future broken with light and shade, they 
can still catch a glimpse of a righteous yet merciful 
Judge. 

Some of the preachers, from whose discourses I 
endeavoured to comprehend the principal features of 



184 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

their system, were unquestionably most eloquent ; 
and amongst them I especially remarked a young 
Cambridge divine, who, on Easter-day, preached a 
sermon on the progress of science. From all that I 
have seen of it, Unitariamsm seems more a system of 
philosophy than of religion ; it still, however, appears 
desirous to adhere to Christian forms. The services 
are celebrated with them very much as they are in 
other Dissenting chapels ; and their hymn-book, made 
up of extracts from Byron, Coleridge, and Cowper, 
certainly evinces some traces of poetry in their wor- 
ship. The congregations are generally not very 
numerous, and, which especially struck me, entirely 
composed of people of the higher classes. This doc- 
trine, which has planted itself so deeply in America, 
has as yet thrown out but feeble roots among the 
working classes in London. 

Chapels are not the only meeting-places for the 
various religious sects in England. Theatres, swim- 
ming-baths, and many other edifices are converted 
on Sundays into places dedicated to worship. And, 
in some cases, is there any need at all felt of a 
temple built by man's hand ? Truly not ; for some 
religious meetings are purposely held in the open 
air. I recollect seeing, one fine day in spring, in 
the midst of the fields, and sitting under a hawthorn 
hedge in bloom, a loving couple, who were keeping 
Sunday in their own way. The young man was read- 
ing and explaining the Bible, and the young girl 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 185 

was listening to him ; he was the minister, and she 
was the congregation. But this kind of pairing off 
to worship was not what I meant. 

At the time of the great revival movement which 
took place in London some years back, Hyde Park 
was perfectly invaded by prayers, hymns, and ser- 
mons. At the present time even, during the sum- 
mer, we meet with a numerous tribe of open-air 
preachers in different parts of London. There are 
some of all ages, from a boy of fifteen to an old man 
with gray hairs ; and they are of all opinions, from 
orthodox Christians down to Mormons, and sometimes 
even atheists. Sunday, which is so strictly observed 
by our neighbours, as far as the closing of shops and 
theatres is concerned, is perhaps the day of all others 
in the week on which the National Church has to 
undergo the roughest usage on the part of her oppo- 
nents. The great majority, however, of the open-air 
preachers adhere to the Bible ; and it is not so much 
their doctrines as their mode of communicating them 
which may appear heterodox. One of their usual 
habits is to begin their discourse by calling their 
hearers " miserable sinners," which certainly seems 
to those who listen a scarcely charitable or even Chris- 
tian mode of address. One day in one place, one 
day in another, these Gospel peripatetics always give 
a preference to those places which are most crowded ; 
and thus their discourses are often interrupted by 
profane amusements and grotesque scenes. 



186 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

A female, about thirty years of age, lean, and 
dark like any gipsy, was preaching one Sunday with 
enthusiasm at the entrance of Greenwich Park, in 

the midst of the donkey-races for which Blackheath 
is so famous. One of these animals, winch for the 
moment was not lured, availed himself of his liberty 
to approach the little group of listeners, and even to 
rub his head against the elbow of the woman who 
was preaching. For some time all went well, and 
the preacheresS) carried away by her zeal, did not even 
notice a circumstance so vulgar ; but at one of her 
most pathetic moments, just as she was crying out, 
" Yes, I am a vagabond for the faith ; yes, young as 
I was, I left my father's house to go and sj)read the 
words of truth in towns and villages," the donkey 
took to braying in the most scandalous way. In vain 
did she threaten the creature with her celestial frown, 
and in vain did she endeavour, both by look and ges- 
ture, to exorcise the demon which possessed hiin. No ; 
the horrible noise kept on as badly as ever, and the 
congregation dispersed amidst roars of laughter. 

I do not think that these street-sermons really 
exercise any great influence on the English popula- 
tion, and yet a very important matter, — the liberty 
of discussion, — was more fully developed out of the 
midst of these discordant utterances. Lately an 
alderman of London caused the apprehension of a 
clergyman of the Established Church, who, from 
lack of employment or for some other motive, had 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 187 

given himself up to preaching in the streets and 
public places in London. The two parties appeared 
before the magistrate, according to custom, and the 
worthy alderman pointed out with some indignation 
the Chartist tendencies which he thought he re- 
marked in the preacher's discourse. " I have nothing 
to do with the opinions which he preaches," gravely 
answered the magistrate ; and as it was proved that 
the defendant had not impeded movement in the 
public thoroughfares, his dismissal was immediately 
pronounced. After all, this freedom of speech is the 
main foundation of the English Constitution. 

The Dissenters or Nonconformists form, as we 
see, the Protestants of Protestantism. All of them, 
more or less, oppose any authority in matters of 
belief. The Church of England, it must be allowed, 
seems but little alarmed at her Dissenting opponents ; 
and why should she be? Has she not on her side 
the mass of education and wealth, and also the sanc- 
tion of the State ? There are, however, some in 
England who bitterly regret this state of things, and 
who would wish, at any price, to bring back unity 
in matters of faith. But, I must say, I think they 
are wrong, and that, on the contrary, these differ- 
ences form one of the chief safe-o-uards of religious 
liberty. There is, too, more than one bond of union 
between all these various sects which have arisen 
out of the growth of the Reformation. For one 
thing, did they not, some years back, found, in con- 



188 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

cert together, the London University ? Have they 
not, also, concluded a sort of compact, which, under 
the name of the Evangelical Alliance, tends to draw 
all together in feelings of tolerance and charity? 
Even a section of the Established Church (the Low- 
Church party) has thought fit to join this movement. 
And, in fact, what have they to fear from the mutual 
action of all the Dissenting bodies ? This schism, 
of which so much is said, consists in forms much 
more than in doctrines. One great and essential 
fact is, that the liberty which Protestantism allows 
to human reason is all-sufficient to prevent any hind- 
rance being offered to the progress of science and 
the development of industry. 

I climbed, one Sunday morning, on to the heights 
which overhang the town of Swansea, consigned, 
for that one day, to silence and rest. Two kinds 
of buildings only evinced any signs of life ; the high 
chimney-shafts, towering over the iron foundries, 
gave vent to black serpents of smoke, curled round 
by the wind into spiral coils, chasing one another 
over the tiled roofs ; and from the church steeples 
I heard the sound of the bells inviting to worship. 
Labour and Prayer — these were the two elements 
which seemed to float in the air over this town, 
spread out as it is on the edge of the resounding 
sea. Does not this seem to afford us a symbol of 
English civilisation ? Religion and Industry — those 
two great powers, which, in Catholic countries, have 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 189 

ever regarded each other with mistrustful jealousy 
— have here persistently lived side by side in perfect 
harmony ; and there has proceeded from this alliance, 
on the one side, liberty of thought, on the other, 
victory over matter. 

To these phases of religious activity, which all of 
them, more or less, seek in Revelation for the found- 
ation of their faith and worship, it may perhaps seem 
curious to bring in rivalry another current of ideas, 
which takes its source in nature, science, history, 
and the fine arts, and in England is represented by 
a temple of its own, dedicated to the philosophical 
tendencies of the mind of man. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Those who go to Church and those who go out of Town — Nature's 
festivals — The Crystal Palace — Why we call it a temple — How 
it originated — Has it answered the end for which it was built 1 
— The amusements which frustrate the good intentions of its 
founders — Services which it might render to the education of 
the people. 

Almost before the trees have begun to throw out 
their white chaplets of blossom and the delicate 
tracery of their first foliage, do the inhabitants of 
London commence to rush in crowds into the coun- 
try. Milton, who passed in London some of the best 
years of his life, draws a happy picture, in his Para- 
dise Lost, of the delight which those imprisoned in 
populous cities must feel, in going out on a fine 
summer morning, and breathing the fresh air amid 
the lovely village scenery and the surrounding farms, 
mingled with the sweet odours of the corn, the hay, 
the cows, and dairies. The taste which Cockneys show 
for landscapes and rustic scenes is, then, nothing 
new ; but this taste must necessarily have much de- 
veloped, inasmuch as London has so much increased, 
and the environs — and therefore the charms of na- 
ture — have become more and more distant from 
the heart of the metropolis. The railways also have 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 191 



powerfully assisted in extending the relations of 
London with the country which lies round it. That 
which was always an inclination has now, for some 
years, become a custom, subject, like all other Eng- 
lish customs, to be influenced as to its extent by 
periodical festivals. 

Excursions always commence on Good Friday. 
This day, in England, has nothing of the solemn 
sadness about it, which it puts on in Catholic coun- 
tries ; it is a day both of rest and pleasure-taking : it 
might be called a gay Sunday, only that this union of 
words would be entirely condemned by the religious 
ideas prevalent in England. Immediately after Good 
Friday follows Easter Monday, also bringing in its 
train numbers of country excursions, which continue, 
more or less, all through the week. The excursion 
fever breaks out again in the summer with Whit 
Monday. On that day, among a certain class, a 
man would be hardly thought an Englishman if he 
were seen in the streets of London, unless he had 
some very pressing occupation. The " Bean Feast," 
which takes place some time in the month of June, 
also has its effect on the ruralising propensities of 
the Londoner — principally among the working class 
— and draws away thousands of families out of the 
town. These popular excursions not only obey, like 
the tides, the influence of the zodiac, but even the 
place which is principally resorted to is very much 
determined by the day and the season at which the 



192 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

excursion takes place. Thus the feast of spring and 
of renovated nature, celebrated on Easter Monday, 
is principally kept on the heights of Blackheath, 
where, amid games of skill, donkey-races, and 
gipsies' tents, stands the entrance to Greenwich 
Park, with its venerable Observatory, a temple dedi- 
cated to the study of the stars, which regulate in the 
heavens the course of the seasons. 

On days like this it is curious to visit the railway 
stations, especially that at London Bridge. It seems 
as if all the powers of steam would be set at defiance 
to carry away the shoals of excursionists. The wo- 
men and children naturally take their share in the 
festival, and rush with unequal steps to the open 
carriages. There are plenty of travellers, but very 
little luggage, except here and there baskets con- 
taining provisions. At last the departure-signal is 
given, and the train glides out like a serpent unwind- 
ing its coils of carriages. And where are they all 
going to ? Many of the Londoners profess a kind 
of devotion for Margate, Ramsgate, and Sheerness. 
This latter shore is sandy, and rather desolate, and 
the ocean scarcely shows itself there in all its gran- 
deur ; but still it is the sea, and that is a sight which 
always has its effect upon the British heart. Some 
time back the Bishops of the Church of England 
joined in writing a letter to the directors of the 
various railways, to ask them not to start any more 
Sunday excursion-trains. This letter was not at all 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 193 

well received by public opinion, and there is very 
little chance that their proposition will ever be car- 
ried out. The working classes in summer time mani- 
fest an invincible preference for the great temple of 
nature, and they love, as was said, to hear on the 
sea-shore the majestic voice of the wind as it preaches 
to the waves. 

This fashion of making excursions is based upon 
a real want and a hygienic fact.' Dr. Letheby, a 
physician who has for many years studied the sub- 
ject, states, with all the authority derived from sta- 
tistics, that the mortality in London is double that 
which affects the country. How, then, can it be 
wondered at that this great stone cage should some- 
times open and let loose whole flights of prisoners, 
who take wing for the fields and woods, and try to 
breathe the life-giving air? The great centres of 
attraction for the excursionists vary, as may be sup- 
posed, according to the season of the year, and ac- 
cording to their separate tastes ; but there is one 
village in the environs of London that has the pri- 
vilege of always attracting a crowd. This place is 
Sydenham, where stands the Crystal Palace ; and it 
is thither that we wish to conduct our readers for 
a short time. 

A journey to the Crystal Palace satisfies several 
requirements at once. In the first place, it is an ob- 
ject to have in view in an excursion, and it is also 
an excellent place for a promenade. The way to it 



194 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

is by train, through the pleasant villages of New- 
Cross, Forest Hill, and Lower Sydenham; one 
catches a glimpse of some of the pleasing landscapes 
of Surrey, with their green lawns and clumps of 
trees ; one glides by the villas, placed sometimes at 
the very edge of the line, but which, with a sort of 
feminine coquetry, just show themselves for a mo- 
ment, and are then lost again, half hidden with 
foliage and flowers. The gardens of the Crystal 
Palace can be seen even before getting out of the 
train. In these gardens they have endeavoured to 
unite the Italian and English styles, without at the 
same time too much interfering with nature, which 
seems to triumph in the free and proud growth of 
the lofty trees. The principal object of attraction, 
however, as may well be guessed, is the Palace itself. 
This edifice of iron and glass is very nearly the 
same as the one which figured in Hyde Park in 
1851, which contained the first Great International 
Exhibition. Having been pulled down in 1852, it 
was again erected on the heights of Penge, at Syden- 
ham, on a new plan, which somewhat modified, en- 
larged, and embellished the exterior arrangements. 
There are stories in the legends of the Middle Ages 
of houses carried for long distances on the wings of 
angels ; it was reserved for our age of ingenuity, and 
for a new system of architecture, to realise these 
wondrous dreams. One of the distinctive character- 
istics of those constructions, which represent in archi- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 195 

tecture the modern English style, is their movable- 
ness ; in case of need they can be either taken away, 
set up again, or altered. Another advantage, which 
certainly would be hardly expected of them, is theii 
solidity. The Crystal Palace, in spite of its fragile 
appearance, has sustained the shock of the elements 
without any signs of giving way. Some years back, 
it was assailed by a sort of waterspout — a furious 
storm which shook all the roof- work ; but yet it stood 
it well. The Palace has all the strength which light 
and airy things possess ; being incorruptible as the 
air that fills it, it sets time at defiance by the un- 
changeable nature of its materials — glass and galva- 
nised iron. From a distance, four or five miles off, 
it glitters in the sun like a mass of diamonds ; one 
would be inclined to view it as the fabric of a dream, 
something made of air and sunbeams, rather than as 
a real edifice. Seen close, it shows an immense pro- 
jecting facade traversed with galleries, with tracery- 
work of iron supporting arches, and with fan-like 
surfaces of glass spreading out somewhat in the form 
of a corona. This facade is flanked with two wings 
stretching out to an immense length, and with towers 
of glass, which would appear very lofty, but that 
they are in complete harmony with the gigantic pro- 
portions of the whole. " If the monuments of the 
past could again come into being, this is the form 
that they would take," cried an artist, full of enthu- 
siasm at the sight of this fairy architecture, and these 



196 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

vast crystal walls, showing through them the colour 
of the sky. 

In reality, the beauty of a construction like this 
consists only in the boldness and grandeur of its out- 
lines. The interior, looked at from the nave, at first 
sight seems to resemble a great covered garden. In 
the winter time mists form in it, which rise gently to 
the glass sky, and then drop again in dew; inside 
the building, we may in a manner visit different 
climates. One day when there was a hard frost I 
passed from a temperature much below the freezing- 
point into a perfectly warm place, t where tropical 
climes were represented by palms, bamboos, and 
cocoa-nut trees. In every season this garden has its 
clumps of green foliage, its creeping plants running 
from tree to tree, its pieces of water, adorned with 
the large leaves of the water-lily, its birds, — black- 
birds, nightingales, linnets, robins, — which make 
their nests in the branches, and fly about and sing 
without any idea of their half-captivity, or perch 
familiarly on the shoulders of the statues. A crowd 
seems lost in this colossal promenade. A Frenchman 
expressed to me his admiration of the Crystal Palace, 
and only regretted that there was scarcely any one 
there on the day on which he visited it. There were 
in fact only five thousand admissions that day, accord- 
ing to the papers. 

Are we wrong in calling this a temple ? In the 
first place, this is the very name which its founders 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 197 

themselves gave it, on more than one occasion ; and 
it really very much corresponds with the idea which 
the ancients formed of a religious edifice. But in 
what way is it a temple ? Is it because it has been 
occasionally used as a place of public worship ? Is 
it because Mr. Spurgeon has preached in it ? Or is 
it because the Sacred Concerts sometimes given there 
convey some of the most glorious passages of the Old 
and New Testaments ? No, indeed ; the Crystal Pa- 
lace may truly be looked upon as a temple, but quite 
in another point of view. The creation of the world, 
the origin of man, the succession of races, the forces 
which prevail in the distribution of climates and 
natural productions, the filiation of dogmas and forms 
of worship, the changes in the idea of God, the 
course of man's works through long ages, the succes- 
sion of ancient and modern civilisations, the variations 
in religious feeling as illustrated by the fine arts, the 
conquests of science, ingenuity, and labour, — these 
are some of the great problems which are brought 
before us at every step by the objects collected in 
this sanctuary of historical contemplation. What 
mind, whether a believer's or an unbeliever's, could 
be, at the present day, indifferent to these questions ; 
and does not the supremacy of the future belong to 
that system of knowledge which shall best resolve 
them ? 

This establishment, like almost all the great in- 
stitutions in England, was founded by a company. 



198 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

The directors of this company put out a prospectus, 
announcing that they intended to raise a capital of 
500,000/., and for this purpose to issue one hundred 
thousand shares of hi. each. Within fifteen days 
afterwards the whole of the money was got. The 
founders resolved to raise a palace for an idea. What, 
then, was this idea ? To instruct the masses, whilst 
at the same time they amused them. In order to carry 
out this plan the company offered Sir Joseph Pax- 
ton, the architect of the glass palace in Hyde Park, 
the office of director of the winter-garden, the park, 
and the greenhouses. His business was to place the 
visitor amid the trees, flowers, and plants of every 
country, and thus to attract the multitude to the 
study of natural science, by showing them living ex- 
amples of the influence of climate on vegetation. 
Mr. Owen Jones and Mr. Digby Wyatt, both distin- 
guished by their labours in the Exposition of 1851, 
were nominated as directors of the department of the 
fine arts. Their business consisted in decorating the 
new palace, and in collecting together the chefs- 
aVosuvre of every period, of every form of civilisation, 
and of every school, so as to form a course of instruc- 
tion which might reach the minds of the people 
through the influence of their eyes. 

For this purpose they were sent to the Continent, 
where they were generally most favourably received ; 
except, however, at Rome, at Padua, and Vienna : in 
these cities the narrow-minded jealousy of the Papal 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 199 

government, and the unenlightened views of Austria, 
prevented them from copying certain celebrated ob- 
jects of art. The departments of geology, ethnology, 
and zoology were intrusted to Professors Forbes and 
Ansted, Dr. Latham, Mr. "Waterhouse, Mr. Gould, 
and other persons well known in the scientific world. 
It was not now wanted to form a mere museum of 
natural history, bat Science was to be made to address 
herself both to the eye and to the imagination. Thus 
it was that Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, at the risk of 
imposing a certain sacrifice to the authenticity of 
facts, undertook, under the guidance of Professor 
Owen, to restore the forms of some of the extinct 
animals of the ancient world, instead of merely ex- 
hibiting their fossil remains. The labours being thus 
divided, and Messrs. Fox and Henderson, the archi- 
tects, having finished the reconstruction of the new 
glass building with the materials of the former one, 
the Crystal Palace at Sydenham was at last opened 
on the 10th of June 1854. 

Since that time can it be said to have attained 
the end for which it was constructed ? Has it been, 
as the programme of the company wished it to be, a 
Palace of Education for the people? Certainly there 
is much to be learnt in this rich collection of curio- 
sities and objects of art, in this history of nature and 
mankind, as set forth by visible records. And it is 
just in this point of view that we mention the Palaco 
at Sydenham as an institution elsewhere unparalleled, 



200 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

the idea of which we should be glad to see extended 
to and reproduced in other places. What country 
has a greater right or perhaps even a greater duty 
than France to put such a plan in execution ? With 
us there has been a great deal of talk about the edu- 
cation of the people, but there has been very little 
done towards it. The English are more practical, 
and have succeeded in shaping a course of instruc- 
tion which appeals to every capacity by the allurements 
of curiosity. The small payment of a shilling has in 
no way prevented the working classes from rushing 
in crowds to Sydenham ; and I cannot bring myself 
to believe that this series of objects, and the impres- 
sion they must make on the memory, can have glided 
out of their minds without leaving some traces be- 
hind. Any branches of knowledge thus communi- 
cated by sight and sense become more accessible to 
the multitude ; we may notice this in the astonish- 
ment and naive enthusiasm shown by the lower 
classes at the strange figures representing extinct 
forms of civilisation. 

The Crystal Palace is the favourite meeting-place 
with certain societies of the working class ; the an- 
nual festival of the Foresters is always held there. 
They form a very numerous Friendly Society, spread 
all over England ; and on the day fixed more than 
sixty thousand visitors throng the gardens and gal- 
leries, among whom the Foresters may be distin- 
guished by symbolical insignia, and some of them by 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 201 

a theatrical costume, which is supposed to bear some 
resemblance to that once worn by the famous Robin 
Hood. The principals of the schools established at 
Sydenham and in the neighbourhood are in the habit 
of occasionally bringing their pupils to this temple of 
the arts, ingenuity, and progress. What method of 
education could possibly be better adapted for youth 
than that they should learn by their eyes, and thus 
acquire some general notions of the beautiful and the 
useful, in the order in which they have been deve- 
loped through various ages, by living again, as it 
were, in long-past epochs, and even among their in- 
habitants, and by knitting together by visible signs 
the chain of past eras and traditions ? 

Public lectures are professed to be delivered in 
the Palace — at too long intervals, it is true — on the 
various branches of science and history ; for the objects 
themselves, however striking they may be, do not 
always sufficiently explain themselves. Thus, in 
1855, I attended an interesting course of lectures, in 
which Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins endeavoured, from 
the indications afforded by their fossil remains, to 
reconstitute the phenomena of the ancient epochs of 
the earth and its inhabitants. Why, nevertheless, 
must I be constrained to add, that, in spite of some 
very praiseworthy efforts, and in spite of a collection, 
the equal of which one might seek for in vain all over 
Europe, — at least from the point of view in which we 
regard it, — the educational department in the Crystal 



202 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND, 

Palace, in the shape of lectures, has remained up to 
the present time in a state of infancy ? 

The intention of the founders was, as has been 
said, to mix up instruction with pleasure, and it is 
not this intention that I wish to blame. They were 
persuaded, and rightly so, that the mind of a people 
is to be improved by elevating the character of their 
amusements. But, unfortunately, that happened with 
regard to the Crystal Palace which always will hap- 
pen in undertakings in which the commercial prin- 
ciple and pecuniary interests predominate. The com- 
pany looked upon the Crystal Palace as a matter of 
business, rather than as a school for the masses. The 
admission money was, in fact, a question of life or 
death, and, in order to live, it was necessary to attract 
the crowd. It would, perhaps, be unjust to say that 
the multitude showed themselves indifferent to the 
various monuments of art, arranged so as to illus- 
trate the history and progress of civilisation ; but 
- still, it is a fact that Jthe gardens, the masses of flow- 
ers, the tracery-work of roses, the illuminations a 
giorno, the fireworks, and especially the fountains and 
water-towers, made by far the greatest impression on 
the majority of the visitors. In speaking of the Crys- 
tal Palace, one might well use the same words as the 
eccentric Jerome Cardan did in his memoirs about 
the men around him, — Multi amici, pauci autem docti. 
The Palace may number many admirers, but com- 
paratively few among them come there to learn. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 203 

What, then, took place? The directors, bound 
down and restricted as they were by entirely pecu- 
niary considerations, have given way to the public 
taste, and have latterly shown themselves much more 
intent on varying the sights, and introducing amuse- 
ments quite foreign to the original aim of the institu- 
tion, than in at all developing the means of scientific 
instruction. The Crystal Palace is used nowadays 
for all sorts of purposes : monster concerts are given 
in it which frighten the little birds and drive them 
out from their leafy coverts ; the statues have to be 
displaced, the great transept is invaded, and is, on 
these days, entirely given up to the musicians, and to 
an army of 4000 choristers, as well as to a multitude 
of men and women anxious to show off their toilettes. 
Exhibitions are held there of flowers, canaries, pigeons, 
and rabbits. Balloons are sent up, which, from their 
immense bulk, are called " aerial mammoths." Fancy 
Fairs also take place there, every now and then, for 
the sale of various trifling articles, the produce of 
which is devoted to works of usefulness and charity.* 
All these displays still preserve some little relation to 
art, ingenuity, and science,! though more or less dis- 



* The stall-keepers on these occasions are occasionally actresses 
or fashionable ladies. Two or three years ago, a young lady in- 
vented a new plan for giving an extra value to fancy articles which 
were not worth much by themselves. She merely placed them to 
her lips, rosy as a camellia bud. This kiss by proxy was worth a 
guinea. 

t It would not certainly be right to number among these some- 



204 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

tant; but can even this be said of performances on 
the tight-rope ? I do not pretend to deny that a 
certain celebrated French acrobat may have been 
a fruitful source of pecuniary profit to the Crystal 
Palace, thanks to his perilous exhibitions ; but still, it 
may be asked, if the directors have remained strictly 
faithful to their principle, in following this course. 
There seems to be a certain reaction forming in the 
public mind against such sights, where the gratifica- 
tion of curiosity is alone in question. I have heard 
them condemned by English women with much good 
sense, but also, I must allow, with a little too much 
affectation. Could they not have found out a much 
more simple and efficacious means for showing their 
disgust at this kind of entertainment, by not taking 
a part in them? To sum all up, there are certain 
days when the Palace at Sydenham seems to be de- 
viating not a little from its original aim ; and that 
which ought to be a school of instruction has too 
much about it of the public pleasure-garden and of 
the music-hall,— too much of the ever-increasing 
exhibition of articles for sale ; the museum is being 
swallowed up in the bazaar. 



what frivolous amusements the ascents of Mr. Glashier in Mr. 
Coxwell's balloon, which take place at the Crystal Palace. These 
journeys into the clouds have enabled a scientific man of much 
eminence to ascertain the temperature, density, and humidity of 
the atmosphere at elevations which had never before been at- 
tained. 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 205 

I think that the directors are wrong. Though I 
take into account the difficulties under which they 
have laboured, still, it seems to me that there were 
all the first principles of success in the more serious 
element in the Crystal Palace arrangements, if they 
had taken the trouble to extend and complete them. 
I think the public taste would have finally given its 
support to a Palace of Education ; but to this end it 
was necessary that the direction should have had the 
courage to persevere in the path that they themselves 
had first opened out. I will mention a circumstance 
which somewhat confirms my way of looking at it. 
There was an establishment in London, which though 
it did not proceed on exactly the same system as the 
Crystal Palace, resembled it in many respects ; this 
was the Panopticon. It was built in Leicester-square, 
in a style which the English call the Moorish. There 
are, in fact, some imitations of minarets and horse- 
shoe-shaped arches, also slight columns which remind 
one — distantly it is true — of a Palace of the Sylphs. 
Mr. Clarke founded this institution, with the idea of 
offering to the inhabitants of London a complete round 
of instructive recreations. It was his intention to work 
upon the imagination, so as to win it over the more 
easily to some feeling for art and to the study of 
science. Unfortunately the means of attraction which 
were made use of were not found powerful enough 
for the purpose, and one false step after another led 
it into a path in which I should be sorry to see the 



206 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Crystal Palace following, and the Panopticon has, at 
the present time, fallen into the capacity of a concert- 
room, or rather of a music-hall. It is now the Al- 
hambra, which before this last deplorable transfor- 
mation emphatically styled itself the " Palace of the 
Arabian Nights." It is instructive to compare with 
this rather degenerate establishment the Royal Poly- 
technic Institution, which also aspired to render 
science amusing, and not having made any unworthy 
concessions to the frivolous tastes of the public, has 
hitherto preserved its reputation intact, and has, in- 
deed, achieved a certain measure of success. 

In spite of some omissions which are to be re- 
gretted, and certain defects which were, perhaps, 
inseparable from the first carrying out of the plans, 
the Crystal Palace still presents to us a grand ensemble 
of facts and ideas. I should like in my study of it to 
draw out the principal features of a course of educa- 
tion which is nowhere else represented under exactly 
the same form, and to point out any useful improve- 
ments in it which it might be as well to introduce ; in 
short, to interpret the conception which guided the 
arrangement of the Palace at Sydenham, by stating 
both what it now is, and what I think it should be. 
Some of my reflections, perhaps, if only they are 
correct, may have an influence over the future plans 
of other such institutions, which will, no doubt, be 
hereafter established. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Geology the preface of history — The Island of Monsters — Races of 
men and their climates — Pythagoras' dream realised in the 
Crystal Palace — India hadly represented — Ancient Egypt and 
its principal historical characteristics — A temple the produc- 
tion of imagination — Symbolical architecture — Where is the 
mind of a people to be sought for ? — Causes of the decay of 
primitive civilisations — The Assyrian Court — The Priest- 
Kings — Sensations on passing from the monuments of primi- 
tive Eastern communities to ancient Greece — Arrival in the 
modern world — A Roman dwelling-house — The Alhambra — 
The dogma of Fatalism connects the Moors with the other 
quiescent communities. 

The Crystal Palace embraces two great classes of 
facts : — the history of the earth before man, and the 
history of the earth after man's appearance on it. 

The first of these two histories is presented to us 
in some of its features at the end of the gardens. 
The ground is there so arranged as to produce steep 
and flat shores, rising grounds, ponds, and islets. 
Rocks have been conveyed there which were taken 
out of the different geological formations of Great 
Britain. It has been the intention of Professor An- 
sted and Sir Joseph Paxton to illustrate by examples 
the strata of the terrestrial erust, just in the successive 
order in which they lie over one another. First we 
have the old red sandstone, the carboniferous lime- 



208 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

stone, and the coal-bearing beds ; next, with the new 
red sandstone, a new order of phenomena begins. 
The scientific men and artists connected with the 
Palace have not contented themselves with bringing 
before our eyes the stratification and position of the 
various rocks, but have also endeavoured to resusci- 
tate some of the former animal inhabitants, remains 
of which have been found buried in the more recent 
strata. Resuscitation, as a human work, is of course 
the tracing out the forms of extinct beings ; and 
what is there that can be more buried in oblivion 
and passed away than these creatures, once real 
enough, and existing on the surface of our planet ? 
Nevertheless we see them here, restored by the con- 
trivances of science, perhaps not exactly as they pro- 
ceeded from the hands of nature, but, at all events, 
something like it. 

On the little island composed of the new red 
sandstone, we see squatting down the labyrinthodon 
and the dicynodon, like monster frogs, almost equal- 
ling in bulk the size of an ox. In the island of the 
lias formation the dynasty of the great reptiles crawl 
about; the ichthyosaurus with his great round eye, 
which must have glowed like a lantern in the dark 
depths of the sea; the plesiosaurus, especially remark- 
able for the great length of its slender and flexible 
neck, at the extremity of which the flat head darts 
here and there its serpent-like and ferocious bites, 
and is also so like the iguana found on the banks 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 209 

of the Ganges. In the formation that follows, the 
oolite, we find the small pterodaetyles, or winged 
reptiles, and the megalosaurus, a colossal form with a 
lizard's head, voracious as a crocodile, and armed 
with a perfect forest of teeth, supported in front on 
short legs resembling two pillars ; this creature is 
twenty-nine feet long from the muzzle to the end of 
the tail, and twenty-two feet six inches round its 
body. In the same island, but among the cretaceous 
beds, the massive iguanodon and hylceosaurus lie at 
the edge of the water, lizards with their backs brist- 
ling with spines, and supported on four legs bigger 
than those of the largest elephant. There also swims 
the mosasaurus, showing only its immense head above 
the surface of the lake ; and farther back sit, as it 
were perched upon a rock, the great pterodactyles, 
the fabulous dragons of the old world ; chimeras with 
folded wings and claw-armed feet, appearing as if to 
guard the secrets of ancient nature. 

We must now leave the island of the secondary 
formations, as we are about entering on another age 
of creation. This new era is shown to us in another 
island, that of the tertiary formation, in which quite 
a different system of animals is grouped. We see 
here, as if in a dream, standing up and looking like 
life, all the ancient mammals, the simple fossil re- 
mains of which so much puzzled the naturalists half 
a century back; here is the palceotherium with his 
trunk, the tapir of the old world, the common ano- 

p 



210 BELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

plotlierus, the slender anoplotherus, and farther away, 
the megatherium, like a gigantic sloth, about to tear 
down a tree in order to devour the leaves. At last 
we come to the proud-looking Irish elks, with their 
antlered foreheads, the last representatives of an ex- 
tinct order of beings, but which gradually bring us 
on to the present forms of life, and thus enable us to 
connect on the numerous links of a past creation to 
the great chain of recent animal life. 

All this constitutes, I must confess, a scheme of 
geology which is a little romantic, and, perhaps, 
theatrical ; but must it not be so, if you wish to im- 
press the imagination of the masses ? At all events, 
it was a happy idea to place, as it were, side by side 
the two great histories — that of the earth as delineated 
in the gardens, and that of the human race repre- 
sented by a very different class of objects in the in- 
terior of the Palace ; one is to some extent the pre- 
face to the other. Must we not go back to the long 
past vicissitudes of our globe if we wish to trace out 
the origin of the actual level of the ocean, the ar- 
rangement of mountains and valleys, the configura- 
tion of our coasts, and, in fact, all those features of 
physical geography which have exercised so power- 
ful an influence over civilisation generally? Who, 
then, could fail to appreciate the link of union be- 
tween these phenomena of the ancient world and 
the department of the Palace which is devoted to 
Natural History and Ethnology? 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 211 

A different method from that ordinarily followed 
in museums has here regulated the arrangement and 
classification of the various forms of life. The inten- 
tion here has been to group plants and animals in a 
geographical order, so as to give a general idea both 
of the distribution of organised existence over the 
surface of the earth, and also of their respective 
countries and the influence exercised by climate. 
Although everything in the general aspect of this 
phase of nature, compared with that of the ancient 
epochs, presents a character of newness, there is one 
circumstance — the presence of man — which gives the 
impress of a special peculiarity. This latter being 
may perhaps have been contained in germ in some of 
the former progressive steps of the animal kingdom ; 
but how has he been developed from them ? This is 
the great mystery of science ; and the professors at 
the Crystal Palace have received no mission to ex- 
plain it; they are satisfied with demonstrating the 
facts, and illustrating them in a picturesque shape. 

Clumps of shrubs stretch on the right and left in 
the nave, occupied here and there with groups of 
natives belonging to the old or new world. Although 
the human species, wherever it is found, offers some 
features of identity, still we find it divided into races 
differing in colour and physical characteristics ; each 
of which races seems attached to some one great 
division of the terrestrial globe. Thus, for instance, 
the Negro lives and is specially developed in the 



212 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

countries of Central Africa, where the plants and 
animals present a considerable analogy with the Flora 
and the Fauna of the ancient geological epochs. The 
lowest stage of degradation in the black race is shown 
in a gronp of savages of North Australia ; their lean 
and elongated limbs, at first sight, remind one of the 
proportions of the ape. They are, however, very 
little inferior to the family of Bushmen who figure a 
little way off; an unfortunate race in South Africa, 
who decrease day by day, persecuted by the other 
native races and by harsh European colonists. Hav- 
ing thus traversed the black world, we get to the 
Zulu Caffres, with their brown skins, high foreheads, 
and more fully-developed intelligence. Proceeding 
onwards, we next find the Danakils, leading their 
camels to drink : these Abyssinians form the link be- 
tween the Negro and the Arab. The continent of 
America next presents us with her aborigines from 
Mexico, her Caribs, and her Botocudos. The islands 
of the Oceanic Archipelago bring to our notice a 
family of Papuans, who, with their frizzled hair re- 
sembling a mass of tow, partake of the character both 
of the Negro and Malay. Finally, in Asia, in a group 
of Hindoos belonging to different castes engaged in 
tiger-hunting, do we find the germ of our white race. 
They have not been satisfied here with placing 
ethnology in active operation, as it were, and with 
representing the games, the occupations, the favour- 
ite exercises, and the domestic life of the various 



EELTGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 213 

human families, but they have also sought to bring 
together those animals which best present to our 
eyes the features of the different climates, and with 
which the customs of savage life are so closely, and 
in so many respects, bound up. The intention was 
certainly excellent, but the carrying out leaves much 
to be desired. The greater part of the human phy- 
siognomies have been, I must confess, moulded and 
copied to the very life ; the skins of the various ani- 
mals have been tolerably well prepared ; and yet the 
effect of the ensemble is meagre, and the details them- 
selves seem sometimes puerile and even ridiculous.* 
A great English naturalist, struck with the inade- 
quacy of these plaster models, asked one day why 
they did not introduce into the Crystal Palace actual 
savages of real flesh and blood, and make them ex- 
hibit to the public representations of their hunting 
and war. This idea, though, is open to several ob- 
jections, and would be attended doubtless with many 
difficulties ; but England would be better able to put 
it in execution than any other nation, on account of 
the extent of her relations with every country on 
earth. 

* This remark applies especially to the cave in which it has 
been endeavoured to represent, by means of painted canvas, the 
eternal ice of the Polar regions ; also the animals of those desolate 
regions, and a Greenland fisherman in his canoe. The interest 
which attaches to these races of Northern savages increases daily, 
however, since some skulls have been found in England which, 
seem to belong to the same type. 



214 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

The portion of the Palace which we have been just 
considering has presented to our notice some great, 
revolutions on the surface of the globe, forming a 
series of developments following one another in order 
in the gradations of life ; in short, the progress of the 
organisation of matter. Are we not thus better pre- 
pared for comprehending the laws of history? The 
primitive races have advanced from barbarism to civi- 
lisation by a similar series of developments ; social life, 
like nature, has had its successive formations, and the 
different eras of mankind, like the primeval ages of 
the earth, have left behind them strata in which lie 
hid the curious relics of the past. Each step in the 
series of civilisation has its type, just as in the world 
of nature ; and it has been the endeavour here to lay 
hold of and resuscitate these types, and to present 
them to our contemplation through the monuments 
which characterise them, retracing, step by step, 
the march of progress, as we find it imprinted on 
the architecture and in the arts of extinct nations. 

In history, as in science, everything that lives 
traces its origin to that which has ceased to be. It 
is a glorious dream, which some may have had, to 
have been an individual of different epochs and of 
departed civilisations ; to have watched the cradle of 
new-born communities ; to have taken a part in the 
mysteries of ancient Egypt; to have been dazzled 
with the glitter of the age of Pericles ; and finally 
to have seen antiquity itself fade away, to give place 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 215 

to more modern systems. Well, it is just such a 
dream as this that they have here endeavoured in 
some degree to embody in a vast assemblage of 
monuments and statues. The visitor may be said to 
live a^ain amid all the ages of mankind, through 
the power -which he has of traversing in a few hours 
the various eras and the renovated forms of succes- 
sive communities. Thence proceeds a new mode ot 
education, which consists in guiding the mind by 
what might be called the peripatetic system of uni- 
versal history. 

On the horizon or in the twilight of antiquity, 
the dark and gigantic apparition of India opens to 
our view. And yet India, especially ancient India, 
is but poorly represented in the Crystal Palace. An 
omission like this can be the less easily explained 
from the fact that the English have so much oppor- 
tunity for studying this country, so mysterious and 
so fruitful in wonders. The artists might have found 
in the Indian Museum, and in an excellent collection 
of photographs of the ancient temples, all the ele- 
ments necessary for reconstructing a style of archi- 
tecture now extinct. In the Indian Museum they 
might have copied, and then have grouped in some 
connected system, the strange figures of the Hindoo 
gods, the so-called incarnations and monstrous ava- 
tars, — those abortions of religious feeling run wild in 
nature. 

Though ancient India has been neglected, for- 



216 EELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 

tunately this has not been at all the case with regard 
to Egypt. This venerable civilisation appears to ns 
as if coming out of its shroud and made young again 
by the ingenious processes of restoration which have 
animated and embellished the ascertained realities 
without in any way distorting them.* The types 
of architecture which have been collected in the 
Egyptian Court have not been in every case taken 
from any particular ruin; they are rather illustra- 
tions of various styles, grouped together so as to 
give some idea of the development of art in this 
mysterious nation. It is not to be expected that, in 
the various changes, we shall find the character of 
progress so strongly impressed as in the history of 
edifices belonging to more modern nations. Their 
religion was opposed to it ; their petrifying dogmas 
had once for all fixed their symbols of worship ; the 
law of Egyptian art, like that of the entire commu- 
nity, was simple immobility. Mr. Owen Jones has 
even formed the idea that it is only in the epoch of 
its decadency that we know much of the Egyptian 
style ; the era of its grandeur and its perfection has 



* This labour has been singularly facilitated by some recent 
discoveries. At the present time, not only the tools are known 
which were made use of by the Egyptian artists, but even the pro- 
cess of designing which they applied in their sculpture. In certain 
sepulchral crypts, which were building during the whole lifetime 
of a king, and wers left unfinished at his death, there have been 
actually found chambers, where the walls, hollowed out of the 
rock, had been prepared to receive paintings and sculpture. 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 217 

been buried with the more ancient Pharaohs ; and it 
is only here and there that we discover some remains, 
the more beautiful just in proportion as they can be 
traced back to a more remote period of antiquity. 
Still less can we trace out the infancy of this art, for 
it is lost in the night of time. 

An avenue of lions, modelled from two specimens 
brought from Egypt by Lord Prudhoe (afterwards 
Duke of Northumberland) leads us to the outer pre- 
cinct of a temple — the walls decorated with deep bas- 
reliefs and columns. But what is this temple ? Let 
us at once state that it bears no resemblance to any 
one particular monument which has been discovered 
on Egyptian soil ; it is, however, acknowledged by 
the savants to be an exact representation of the style 
which flourished at the epoch of the Ptolemies. As 
it was the principal aim of the professors at the 
Crystal Palace to appeal to the senses, and to give a 
visible shape to history, they would have entirely 
failed in their attempt if they had been satisfied with 
merely reproducing solitary and mutilated fragments 
such as one sees in museums of art. In place of this, 
it was essential that they should give, as it were, a 
soul and body to the Egyptian symbolism ; that they 
should restore the ruins ; select and group together, in 
a space which was much too confined, just those fea- 
tures which would convey to the mind of the spectator 
the fullest idea of a civilisation so remote from our 
own. The walls are covered with fantastical and 



218 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

coloured figures, the principal subject of the pictures 
being a king who is making offerings to and receiving 
presents from the gods. The capitals of the columns 
are formed of palm and lotus leaves ; others again 
show the papyrus in its various stages of development, 
from the bud to the full-blown flower. On the frieze 
which is above the columns runs a hieroglvphical 
inscription, which announces that "in the seventh 
year of the reign of Victoria, the sovereign of the 
waves, this Palace was raised and adorned with a 
thousand statues, as a book for the use of the men 
and women of all nations." 

At the sight of this ornamental architecture — -just 
the same, or nearly so, as might have come from the 
chisel of one of the ancient artists with flat noses and 
prominent cheek-bones — we are almost tempted to 
believe that we are really in Egypt in the days of the 
Ptolemies. I entered the court or vestibule of the 
temple ; not, however, without commending myself to 
two winged globes, the symbolical divinities who pro- 
tect the threshold of the door. There it was that 
the multitude were wont to assemble. On the wall 
on my right was displayed a grand fresco of the 
temple of Rameses Mai Amun, at Medinet Habou, 
near Thebes. The warriors are represented as count- 
ing up the hands of his slain enemies before the king, 
the chief of the nineteenth dynasty, who is stand- 
ing up in his chariot, surrounded by his servants 
and fan-bearers ; there were three thousand of these 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 219 

hands, as I learned from the hieroglyphics engraved 
on the head of the scribes ; and this number inspired 
me, as may be well imagined, with the most profound 
admiration for this great 'and magnificent sovereign- 
On my right was the representation of a battle, or 
rather of a siege, for the Egyptians seemed just about 
capturing a fortress. Turning round, I found myself 
facing eight gigantic upright figures, enveloped in 
scanty white tunics, with their hands crossed upon 
their breasts. These statues, with cheeks of a red 
hue, opened wide their great black eyes, which seemed 
to look fixedly into eternity. 

I passed under this sullen-looking vision of stern 
gravity and immovable force, and then, turning to 
the left, I found myself in the midst of a very com- 
pact colonnade, of a most original and curious appear- 
ance. Each of the columns represented eight stalks 
and eight buds of papyrus bound together, and stand- 
ing up in the form of a sheaf. I came at last to the 
tomb which was discovered at Beni-Assan, hollowed 
out in a chain of rocks which form a barrier to the 
east of the Nile, and divide the sandy desert from the 
fertile valley of the river. This monument belongs to 
a very ancient epoch, more than sixteen hundred years 
before our era ; it is easy to gather this from the bare 
and severe shape of the columns, which form one of 
the earliest orders of Egyptian architecture. Why 
was it necessary that arrangements, dictated no 
doubt by motives not difficult to divine, should have 



220 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

so much altered the original character of this mauso- 
leum, by removing the obscurity and solemn gloom ? 
Without waiting to decide this question, I continued 
my course into a chamber ornamented with all kinds 
of bas-reliefs, statues, and paintings ; one of which 
represents Barneses II. in the course of mowing off 
the heads of his enemies, assisted by the merciful 
god Amnion- Ba. I went through various colonnades 
of different styles and of different epochs, from that 
of the temple of Philoe to that of the temple of Kar- 
nac. Some of them had on the top the statue of the 
Egyptian goddess of love, represented with the ears 
of a heifer, and called by the Egyptians " the great 
cow which brought forth the sun." 

I at last discovered in a nook the famous temple 
of Abou-Simbel.* But the charm was soon broken 
here ; for an English inscription told us that what 
we had before our eyes was only a miniature of the 
facade of the temple itself, hollowed out, as it is, in 
the side of an old stone quarry. To regain the train 
of illusion, it was necessary to go on into another 
chamber, or, as it is called, into another court. 
There, amid an elevated temperature, favourable to 



* The ruins of this immense edifice were discovered in Nubia 
about half a century back, in the sand heaped up by the driving 
winds of the desert. Mr. Hay, an Englishman, subsequently under- 
took considerable labours on the spot, to lay bare the bases of the 
statues and of the ancient walls of the temple. Some idea may 
be formed of the colossal character of these ruins by examining 
the photographs which are in the Crystal Palace. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 



121 



the growth of tropical plants, and at the end of an 
avenue guarded by a double row of sphinxes, stand 
two astounding statues, each being sixty-five feet in 
height.* These are the colossal representations of 
Rameses the Great, seated in an attitude of passive 
majesty which powerfully indicates a class of being 
superior and insensible to the world which we in- 
habit. Some other much smaller statues are intended 
for his mother, his wife, and his daughter. The ex- 
aggerated stature of the former statues express par- 
ticularly a grandeur of social condition, a nation 
absorbed in the State, and a State personified by a 
man. 

Few can fail in understanding here the intention 
of the professors of the Crystal Palace in thus ex- 
huming and restoring these fossils of history. The 
results of such sights as these may not be altogether 
science itself, but they induce at least the impres- 
sions which lead to it. An endeavour has been made, 
under the veil of symbols, to reconstitute here one of 
the types of primitive civilisation. The Egyptians 
having especially signalised their sojourn on earth by 
enormous and mysterious edifices, which have alike 
set at defiance the lapse of time and injuries from 
man and the desert, it became needful to turn to 
their architecture in the first place, in order to re- 



* In the temple of Abou-Simbel, which served as the model for 
this imitation, there are four statues of the same size, intended to 
multiply the royal person. 



222 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



produce some of the grandeur of that which is some- 
times called the Babelic age of mankind. Their art, 
like their whole social order, was the product of their 
religion ; and the religion of Egypt, like most of the 
ancient systems, was based upon a vast materialistic 
conception of the outer world. They were the ruling 
laws, or rather forces, of the universe, which they em- 
bodied in these gods with the faces of an ibis, a tiger, 
a jackal, or a crocodile. The immolations performed 
in the interior of the temple, under every variety of 
form, were exemplified in the State by every kind of 
sacrifice ; hence these icy and oppressive figures, in 
whom the people worshipped their own annihilation. 
In this absolute inflexible order of things, the immo- 
bility of institutions was shadowed forth in the im- 
mobility of statues. How, then, did this model of 
ancient communities come to be broken up ? Some 
naturalists, wearied of attributing to the doctrine of 
cataclysms all those great changes which have been 
wrought on the earth during the obscure night of 
the earlier geological epochs, have sought to explain 
them by other and more simple causes, — by the vari- 
ations of the atmosphere and the maturing of new 
forms of life upon the globe. And perhaps the day 
will come when historians also will allow less influ- 
ence to wars and revolutions than to the gradual 
and inevitable laws of progress in working out the 
decadency of nations. If, by a miracle, some of the 
old Pharaohs, buried under the ruins of their ancient 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



monuments, could return to light, they would under- 
stand that there was no longer any place for them in 
this modern world of ours, and would calmly close 
their eyes, and majestically repose again in their 
quiet tombs. These great beings, shadowed forth in 
the colossal proportions of sculpture, coidd be at their 
ease in the past only ; borne down by a new state of 
things, and by historical changes which they were 
forbidden to fail in with, they have been long ex- 
tinct, having left in the sands of JJgypt the evidences 
and the monstrous relics of their vanished power. 

We must, however, remain some little while 
longer in the cycle of ancient Oriental civilisations. 
On our right stretches the Assyrian Court, where 
they have sought, by means of the same processes, 
to reconstruct, not any one particular temple, but 
the general peculiarities of a long-lost architecture. 
And to this end, the discoveries made some years 
ago at Khorsabad, in the ancient kingdom of Assy- 
ria, have been made to contribute. They have em- 
bodied the labours of those savants and antiquaries 
who, to some extent, brought to light the palace of 
Sargon, successor of Shahnanezer, also the palace of 
his son Sennacherib, at Kouyunjik, as well as those 
of Sardanapalus and Esar-haddon at Nimroud. They 
also consulted the explorations and excavations which 
have recently laid bare the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's 
palace at Babylon, and those of Darius and Xerxes 
at ISusa. It was not only the grand proportions, and, 



224 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

as it were, the skeleton of this almost fabulous archi- 
tecture, which reappeared from behind the veil of 
sand removed by the hands of the explorers, but even 
the most minute details and delicate ornamentation ; 
even the remains of painting which has been per- 
mitted still to give life and colour to some of the 
strange creations of Assyrian art. It was certainly 
quite a novel and curious attempt, this plan of in- 
troducing us into the monuments of the Mesopo- 
tamian kingdoms during the two centuries which 
elapsed between the reigns of Sennacherib and 
Xerxes. 

The work of restoration, or rather representation, 
was intrusted to Mr. James Ferguson and Mr. Lay- 
ard,* who, without at all sacrificing the appearance 
of truth, have succeeded in uniting, in an imaginary 
palace, all the scattered features of an epoch and 
of a civilisation which seemed for ever lost. The 
entrance of this palace appears guarded by those 
gigantic figures of winged bulls, with human heads 
and black frizzled beards, which, according to Mr. 
Layard, represent the three great attributes of divi- 
nity, intelligence, force, and ubiquity. If you are 
not frightened away by these monsters and the As- 
syrian Hercules strangling the lions, you will now 
enter a large chamber, in the centre of which stand 



* The latter scholar and statesman has published a book on 
the antiquities of Nineveh, — Nineveh and its Remains, — which has 
met with great success. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 225 

four columns exactly copied from some that were 
found at Susa and Persepolis. The walls are covered 
with sculpture and cuneiform (or rather arrow-head) 
inscriptions, which have been recently deciphered, 
and also with paintings and carvings of a religious 
character. We must not forget that these palaces 
were temples as well, for the king combined the 
functions of high priest and military chief of the na- 
tion. The ceiling which is over this chamber pre- 
sents the general appearance of ceilings as used in 
this ancient part of Asia ; but it has here principally 
served as a means for displaying the different modes 
of colouring in Assyrian art. At the end of the court 
we may notice an arch of rather an elegant form, 
and which, by its design, seems to have derived its 
origin from a more modern taste than that of the 
inhabitants of Assyria ; it is, however, a faithful copy 
of a model which was discovered at Khorsabad. 

From this hall we pass on into two chambers, 
planned so as ,to give some idea of the arrangement 
of the ancient palace, and decorated with mouldings 
taken from the bas-reliefs discovered at Nimroud. In 
conformity with the customs of the ancient sovereigns 
whose dominions we are visiting, we also find pic- 
tures representing the chase, war, sacrifices, and all 
the amusements which occupied the leisure of an 
Asiatic monarch. In the collective aspect of its fea- 
tures, Assyrian art is connected, although with well- 
defined shades of distinction, with the other groups 

Q 



226 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

of ancient civilisations, such as those of India and 
Egypt. There is the same oppressive and formidable 
symbolism, the same tendency to the exaggeration of 
shapes, almost the same hierarchy of gods, half men 
and half beasts, all bearing evidence that the princi- 
ple of self had not yet been able to detach itself from 
the mute and confused forces which bound it down 
to nature. Although wrapped up in different myths, 
their religions in every case tended to form a com- 
munity in which the people accepted with blind re- 
signation the necessity of the causes which oppressed 
them, and made a worship of their weakness and 
their fears. 

The visitor, in passing from Egypt and Assyria 
into Greece, feels that sort of relief which he must 
have just before experienced in leaving the strange 
reptiles of the tertiary formation — those nightmares 
of the infant earth — and finding himself among ani- 
mals approaching closer to the present forms of life. 
It is like leaving behind the aberrations of fancy 
and advancing towards reality. To the gloomy epoch 
of monsters and dragons, to the sullen immobility of 
sphinxes and gods, to a system of art gigantic in its 
character and weighed down by a silent and mystic 
religion, there all at once succeeds the very resplend- 
ence of beauty. This change, however, took place 
by no means so suddenly in the course of history ; 
embosomed in the Egyptian architecture we find the 
germs and the prototypes which afterwards became 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 227 

so fruitful, when developed into beauty by Grecian 
art;* it is even probable that this transition would 
appear infinitely less abrupt, if we possessed the pri- 
mitive monuments which characterised the infancy of 
Hellenic genius. The truth is, that Greece, espe- 
cially in the beginning, was still bound by certain 
religious and poetic ties to the ancient East ; but she 
at length succeeded in throwing them off by means 
of her more unshackled social organisation, her softer 
manners, and her more man-like gods. One of these 
causes of progress would have been more satisfacto- 
rily pointed out, if the changes of climate could have 
been better illustrated than they have been at the 
Crystal Palace. 

Mr. Owen Jones, to whom was deputed the task 
of decorating the Greek Court, has not followed alto- 
gether the same plans that were adopted in regard to 
Egypt and Assyria. The monuments of Greek art 
were more certain and better known ; he has there- 
fore been content with exhibiting them in groups, 
surrounding them with all the adjuncts which could 
assist the illusion. We enter first under a facade of 
the Doric order into the interior of an agora or 
Greek fonim, which was used as a market, and also 
as a place of meeting for public solemnities. What 
is most novel in this somewhat theatrical decoration, 



* Thus it is that the straight and unornamented column of the 
earliest period of Egypt has served as the primitive model for the 
column of the Doric order. 



228 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND, 

intended as it is to place on the stage a company of 
statues, is the colour with which the principal lines 
of the architecture are painted. These blue, red, or 
yellow surfaces, all blazoned with gold, give, we may 
be permitted to believe, a pretty good idea of the 
way in which the Greeks understood the ornamenta- 
tion of buildings. In the interior of this court are 
grouped and arranged in a certain order plaster 
statues, moulded from models in the possession of the 
principal European museums. Leaving the agora, 
we cross a small side-court, the stoa, in which the 
visitor finds himself standing, as it were, between 
the Greek and the Egyptian styles of art, — the 
former represented by a colonnade of the Doric 
order, the latter by a sloping wall. He can thus 
compare the two styles — the harmonious forms with 
the passive and colossal figures. A little farther on, 
and we enter the covered atrium, which was gene- 
rally attached to the agora. Large pillars support a 
panelled ceiling, which has been imitated from one 
in the temple of Apollo at Bassa in Arcadia. From 
this spot stretches a long gallery of celebrated sculp- 
tures, among which we can distinguish the frieze of 
of the Parthenon, which Mr. Owen Jones has en- 
deavoured to re- delineate, partly from fancy, and 
partly from the guidance afforded by the remains of 
Grecian antiquity. At last we come to the Parthenon 
itself, which has been reconstructed on the spot, 
thanks to the advice and the studies of Mr. Penrose, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 229 

who has been familiarised by his long sojourn in 
Athens and by his deep studies of the subject with 
all the secrets of Grecian architecture. This system 
of education by means of objects of Greek art is 
addressed to a public, the majority of whom have 
never read one line of a Greek poet. Is it not, how- 
ever, a fact, that up to a certain point a kind of 
history of Hellenic art, religion, and society may be 
gathered from the ensemble of the spectacle presented 
to us ? 

The figures relating to their religion, reduced to 
more moderate proportions than those of the Egyp- 
tian myths — those dark hallucinations of stone which 
beset the. human brain — sufficiently indicate the de- 
cline of theocracy. In Greece, in spite of their 
mysteries and initiations, a great part of their re- 
ligion was laid open ; heaven seemed to smile, and 
the gods appeared august and serene in the light of 
Olympus ; they were individuals and no longer mere 
forces of nature. The veil which still shrouds the 
head of some of their divinities has no longer the 
character of impenetrable mystery; it is the peplos, 
— a human emblem, a type of the wondrous web 
of life which spreads over the course of existence 
on the surface of our earth. Man up to this time, 
passive in his relations to the universe, liberates 
himself at last from the oppressive inaction of the 
elements ; acting by means of thought on the outer 
world, he modifies it to some extent, and finally 



230 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

gathers out of nature the idea of the beautiful. In 
place of the symbolical inflexibility of shapes con- 
secrated by dogmas, and the religious conceptions of 
the earliest age, which petrified in one invariable 
mould all the attributes of divinity, succeeded gra- 
dually a degree of pliability and freedom of fancy in 
the arts. The sculptor's art shook off the imposing 
quiescence of architecture ; those beings of stone, 
offspring of the human brain, which scarcely ven- 
tured, like children, to try their first step, soon 
assumed, in the highest degree, both movement and 
expression : they live, they move, they share — while 
they elevate — our passions, our joys, and our sor- 
rows. 

Pascal, when seeking for the distinctive feature 
of man's superiority, thought that he had discovered 
it in the idea, " that man is the only being in crea- 
tion that is sensible that it suffers." One might 
say, somewhat similarly, that Greek sculpture — as, for 
instance, in the group of Niobe — first fully repre- 
sented the feeling of grief. Seek for no such evi- 
dence of weakness from the colossal figures of Egypt, 
insensible as the granite from which they are carved. 
The Greek nation emancipated themselves just in the 
same measure as they gave more latitude to the 
nature of their gods ; for civil and political institu- 
tions are generally to a great extent shaped by re- 
ligious ideas. In place of these cavern-like temples, 
and these palaces of the East, embodying the fright- 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 231 

ened slavishness of a nation absorbed by a man or 
by a caste, we find in Greece public places where 
all classes of society met together and consulted. 

We must not be surprised at sudden changes : we 
were just now Greeks ; now we are Romans. Many 
a one would like to be able to shake off his person- 
ality amid all these successive transformations, and 
to become, as it were, the chameleon of history. 
Now we are walking in the outside part of the 
Coliseum, in front of a wall pierced with semi- 
circular arches, and ornamented with columns of the 
Doric order; this is the entrance of the Roman 
Court, inside which is a large apartment, with walls 
painted in imitation of porphyry, malachite, and 
those rare marbles with which the Romans loved to 
decorate their palaces. Just the same as in the 
Greek Court, the visitor passes through a series of 
vestibules, where he can study the models of archi- 
tecture and sculpture. At the first glance, and con- 
sulting only artistic feeling, one would be tempted 
to believe that Rome had made a step backward in 
the path of civilisation. In comparison with Greece, 
does she not present certain features of barbarism, 
which can be traced even through all the refinement 
of the age of Augustus, and amid the corruptions of 
the Caesars? We get rid of this impression, how- 
ever, when we think over some of her laws and 
political institutions, and especially when we recall 
the fact, that she first founded the organisation of the 



232 KELIG10US LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

city, spreading even as far as Gaul the germs of that 
liberty which was one day to result in the enfran- 
chisement of the population of the country. 

I think, perhaps, that the greatness of Borne, 
under this aspect, is not sufficiently brought into 
notice at the Crystal Palace. Was the Coliseum, 
with its gloomy motto, " Panem et Circense" exactly 
the kind of edifice that should have been chosen to 
give an idea of a powerful nation ? The Latin race 
were primitively of a decided character, and had gods 
of their own ; but subsequently, shackled by their 
conquests, they more or less assumed the philosophy, 
the arts, and the gods of the vanquished nations. 
This movement can be traced out in the statues fol- 
lowing one another in order of time. 

Not satisfied with having thus depicted the his- 
tory of Rome, from the bright days of the Eepublic 
down to the sad array of the Emperors, they have 
sought as well to give us some information as to the 
manners and domestic life of the Romans. For this 
purpose they have turned their attention to the ruins 
of Herculaneum and Pompeii, the cities which were 
buried alive under lava and cinders. As happens so 
often in the course of nature, the matter which de- 
stroyed these towns also tended to preserve them. 
Although they fully intended to construct the model 
of a Roman house from the aid afforded them by the 
remains which were exhumed at Pompeii, they have 
not had any one particular villa in view. The idea 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 233 

has been, to give a model of a complete habitation, 
with its courts, vestibules, and arrangement of rooms. 
Travellers who have been at Naples assure us that 
the imitation is accurately correct.* The entrance is 
through a narrow passage, the prothyrum; on each 
side a little room is reserved for the porter and the 
slaves; on the pavement you see, inlaid in mosaic, 
the representation of a fierce dog, with the warning 
words, Cave canem.-f And now the visitor is quite at 
liberty to fancy himself in his own house, if he can 
at all realise the illusion which is intended to be sug- 
gested. As a Koman of the time of Augustus, he is 
now in his atrium, in the centre of which an open- 
ing made in the roof, — the compluvium, — catches 
and turns the rain-water into a marble basin, — the 
impluviitm. All around the atrium, he can enter the 
sleeping chamber (cubicula), curiously decorated with 
mural paintings. All the rest of the house is equally 
open to him, — the wings (alw), a kind of nook de- 
voted to the transaction of business with strangers ; 
the tablinum, where it is considered that the family 
archives were kept, also the paintings and objects 
of art; the peristyle; the xystus, or flower-garden; 
the triclinium, or winter dining-room; the summer 



* The paintings have been executed under the superintendence 
of M. Giuseppe Abbate, one of the keepers of the Museum at 
Naples. 

f On the doorstep of another side-door there is inlaid a rather 
more hospitable motto — Salve. 



234 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

triclinium; the vestiarium; the bath-room; the cecus, 
or banqueting-room ; the thalamus, or bed-chamber 
of the master of the house. In going out, he again 
reaches the atrium by certain narrow passages 
(fauces). 

The transition from Eome to Granada and its 
civilisation certainly seems rather sudden; and yet, 
if one takes account more of the natural course of 
ideas than of the chronological order of facts, the 
religion of the Saracens seems allied to antiquity by 
its dogma of fatalism. Every one would, of course, 
guess that the specimen chosen to give an idea of 
Moorish architecture would be taken from the Al- 
hambra. The architecture itself is rather a far strag- 
gling branch from the main trunk of Byzantine art, 
and in this respect may perhaps offer some traces of 
a family likeness with the Roman style of architec- 
ture. We now find ourselves transported into the 
midst of the thirteenth century, into the famous 
Court of Lions, in the centre of which stands a 
fountain supported on the animals which gave it its 
name. Round the basin of this fountain some Arabic 
verses thus celebrate the merit of the artist: " Tremble 
not, thou who lookest at these couching lions ! Life 
is wanting to enable them to show their fury." God 
knows, however, that the poor beasts have nothing 
terrifying about them. This court is enclosed by a 
covered gallery, the columns and arches of which 
spring up with a delicate and fanciful grace ; on the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 235 

columns is inscribed this sentence : " God is the 
only conqueror." The eye is delighted with the 
fairy lightness of the arabesques, formed of flowers 
and irregular designs, which entwine themselves so 
as to form a verse of the Koran, and with the bright 
and harmonious colours brightening up, with the 
help of gold, this lace-work of stone, as we pass 
on into the Hall of Justice, ornamented with three 
curious paintings. We have some reason to wonder 
at these paintings, representing stags being devoured 
by lions, as the Mohammedan religion forbids the art 
of representing living objects in nature. But does it 
not also prohibit even treading on a morsel of paper, 
from a fear lest the name of God may be written on 
it? And yet this name may be found many times 
inscribed on the pavement in this hall. These cir- 
cumstances have led to the idea, that considerable 
discrepancies existed between the Eastern Mohamme- 
dans and those who were established in the Western 
countries : no doubt the faith of the latter became 
somewhat relaxed by their intercourse with Chris- 
tians. 

Through the Hall of Justice we gain admission to 
the Hall of the Abencerrages. Here especially the 
imagination becomes imbued with all the dreams of 
Eastern life ; the dim twilight which makes its way 
through the ceiling obscured and coloured with all 
the tints of the kaleidoscope, the ornamental carvings 
which hang on the walls like stalactites of stucco, the 



236 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND, 

rich mosaics, — everything in the hall breathes, as it 
were, the mysticism of pleasure. Amid all these 
enervating influences it is not difficult to realise to 
oneself the life of the Sultans, with their romantic 
amours, too often alternated with crimes making a 
mark in history, and also the manners and habits of 
the Arabian and Castilian chivalry. The Court of 
the Alhambra is certainly one of those portions of the 
Crystal Palace which leave but little to be desired ; 
on these oft-times blood-stained walls, arranged artis- 
tically, as they are, for the provocation of sensual 
pleasure, one sees plainly written the whole legend 
of Moorish supremacy. 

Geologists are in the habit of giving the name 
of transition epochs to those periods in which the 
former forces of nature find themselves opposed by 
new forces tending to advance life on the globe, and 
in which the surface of our planet was thus agitated 
by the oscillations of - resistance and of progress. 
Something very like this happens in the history of 
the human race. We have arrived at the de- 
cadency of the old communities ; having by de- 
grees attained to the crowning type which cha- 
racterises them : there they seem to stop short as 
if exhausted, and impotently contend against the 
unknown future which must outlive them. The 
breath of the new spirit passed over the nations 
and shook them ; ruins were heaped upon ruins ; 
unknown races appeared, and spread like a deluge 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 237 

over the Roman empire. Amid all these convul- 
sions, it seemed as if the world must go to ruin : 
on the contrary, it was about to be restored to a 
fresher life. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Infancy of modern civilisations — Primitive forms of Christian 
art — The Byzantine period — The Middle Ages — Memorials of 
Catholic England — The Eenaissance — Its characteristics in 
England — The Elizabethan style — Connection between the 
Eenaissance and the Reformation — Services rendered by 
Henry VIII. to England in separating it from Rome — Why 
has Cromwell no statue in the Crystal Palace ? — History of 
Manufacture poorly shown at the Crystal Palace — Alliance of 
the Useful and Fine Arts — The love of utility distinguishes 
modern communities — Conclusions to be drawn from the 
ensemble of this Temple of History — New system of education 
— To communicate ideas by means of external forms — The 
Crystal Palace a school of democracy. 

The day-star of Christianity had now risen over the 
whole civilised world. All new religions endeavour 
to appropriate the fine arts as the surest means for 
fascinating the imagination. Christianity, which at 
first had despised and repudiated images as being a 
sign of idolatry, as soon as she became the conqueror 
did not delay in adapting herself to the symbols of 
architecture and sculpture. It is not true that Pagan 
art vanished, as if by miracle, before the Cross ; every 
one knows nowadays that the Christians took a 
vigorous part in the destruction of the ancient gods 
and their temples ; the Barbarians completed this 
work of demolition, out of which, amid the ruins, 
were to shoot forth the young stems of a renovated 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



239 



architecture. At the very moment, in fact, when 
the relics of paganism were being consigned to the 
earth, edifices were being constructed on a new sys- 
tem which were to fake their place. 

This latter course of events they have endeavoured 
to commemorate in the Crystal Palace in the Byzan- 
tine Court. Over the porch or facade of this court 
Mr. Digby Wyatt has collected, as a sort of intro- 
duction, the general features of this so eminently 
curious epoch. He has turned his attention to the 
remains that yet exist, and has succeeded in reviving, 
in an ideal composition, the splendid mosaics, paint- 
ings, and allegories of the Byzantine period. This 
entrance leads us into a sort of museum, where they 
have been satisfied with reproducing various objects 
scattered all over Europe, .which are able to give us 
some idea of the art of the period. There are frag- 
ments of cloisters, cathedral porches, recumbent 
statues, baptismal fonts, sarcophagi, Irish crosses 
wreathed with strange ornaments, and the fountain 
of Heisterbach on the banks of the Rhine, in the 
Seven Mountains. It seems as if the barbarous na- 
tions recommenced the infancy of mankind in their 
practice of the arts. The spectator, still under the 
impression of the gloomy monuments of ancient 
Egypt, cannot fail to discover certain analogous fea- 
tures between the sacred style of the primitive East- 
ern communities and that which flourished in the 
west from the 8th to the 13th century. Only here 



240 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

the interest is for us redoubled; for it is our own 
very ancestors who are now in question, and the 
stone swaddling-clothes, so to speak, which wrapped 
round the new-born religious thought of modern 
nations ; it is our own history we read in the myste- 
rious shade of the crypt, in the monastic stiffness of 
the statues, in the emblems of an art petrified by 
dogmas, and in these tombs and shrines, in which 
man, having lived a death-like life, lays down his 
head at last so bravely on his cold marble pillow. 

The Middle Ages are represented in three courts, 
the German Gothic Court, the English Gothic Court, 
and the French Gothic Court. The most interesting, 
at least to a foreigner, is the court in which have 
been collected from all parts of England those monu- 
ments which characterise the triumph of Christian 
spiritualism over the turbulent instincts of the Saxon 
race. The idea has been to provide for the English 
themselves, at a cheap rate, the materials for an 
archaeological journey, as it were, over their own 
country. As to those who have actually seen, in 
their various localities, these different specimens of 
Gothic art, they feel the same sort of pleasure in 
seeing them all classified in a gallery as it is- well 
known that the botanist feels when he retraces in his 
hortus siccus all his former travels, and renews the 
impressions half-effaced by time. 

Entering from the nave into the English Mediceval 
Court, the visitor suddenly finds himself in a cloister 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



211 



of the fourteenth century, in which the forms of the 
arches and columns have been taken from Guisbo- 
rough Abbey in Yorkshire. From this pleasant and 
peaceable cloister, where the footstep resounds on a 
pavement of tiles of brilliant and harmoniously min- 
gled colours, can be perceived detached bits of some 
of the most celebrated cathedrals in Great Britain, 
but especially the magnificent pointed doorway of 
Rochester Cathedral. The most ignorant in archae- 
ology could not fail to observe the changes which 
have taken place in architecture since the Byzantine 
period ; everywhere round him the straight line has 
taken the place of the curved one, and he is in the 
midst of that which is called the Perpendicular or 
Pointed style. The lines of architecture which point 
straight upwards, the meagre austerity of the forms, 
the ascetic attitude of the statues, the sombre melan- 
choly of the furrowed countenances absorbed in a 
wild love of God, — all seems to announce the victory 
of mind over the body.* The ideal in art, as in 
human life, plunges into and is lost in the mysteries 
of eternity ; and yet what a ray of almost superna- 



* This emaciation of the face and limbs, this stiff straining 
of the face as if drawn up towards something above, in a word, 
all the features of a highly- wrought mysticism, are not so strongly 
imprinted on the statues of the Middle Ages in England as in 
Germany. The vigorous Anglo-Saxon race has always resisted 
any excess of Catholic mortification, — a terrible word ; for, as 
Bossuet himself says, it means death-causing — mortem facer e 

K 



242 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

tural grandeur is shed by their simple and unreserved 
faith, on the countenances of these Christians sleeping 
so well and so easily in their tombs ! 

In this collection of objects of mediaeval art cer- 
tain details have not been neglected which might give 
some idea of the usages in England during Catholic 
times. Thus one pauses willingly before the statue 
of the "boy-bishop" taken from Salisbury Cathedral. 
It was then the custom for a bishop to be chosen 
every year among the choristers ; he enjoyed through 
the year all the privileges of a prince of the Church, 
and if he happened to die while holding his office, a 
monument was erected to him : hence arises this re- 
cumbent statue, which recalls rather a touching idea. 
There is scarcely an educated Englishman, however 
good a Protestant he may be, who does not sometimes 
love to carry back his imagination to these days of 
so-called popish idolatry ; for if these legends in stone 
do somewhat clash with the good sense of the Refor- 
mation, at all events they foster in him a sentiment 
of poetry. At first, perhaps, the Church of England 
did well in hating and despising images ; but after 
she was firmly grafted on a trunk well pruned by the 
axe of the first iconoclasts, she did not fail to save and 
preserve all that was left of the vestiges of Grothic 
art. When I was at the Cathedral at Bristol, some 
of the venerable canons seemed much pleased to show 
me several of the old monuments of superstition, 
which they were about to have repaired, quite with 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 243 

feelings of attachment to them. One destroys only 
what one fears, and religious reform in England has 
no longer anything to fear from the past. 

Scientific men have given the name of eocene to 
the beginning of the last geological period, that is, 
to the dawn of modern creation. This same dawn 
breaks also, with different attributes certainly, but 
with a not less vivid light, when we pass from the 
long enthralment of the Middle Ages to the splen- 
dours of the Renaissance. What a rich growth of 
form is here ! what a joyous claim is put forward 
by nature, beforetime so absolutely humiliated and 
annihilated by the dogmas of religion ! 

This festival of the resurrection of art and anti- 
quity is commemorated in the Crystal Palace in three 
courts : the Renaissance Court, the Elizabethan Court, 
and the Italian Court. The plan adopted differs but 
little from the one which has been before followed ; 
the idea has been to work into an ingenious system 
of decoration the chefs-d'oeuvre of Jean Goujon, of 
Lorenzo Ghiberti, of Germain Pilon, of Michael 
Angelo, and of other well-known artists. The choice 
of monuments has been a happy one, and the visitor 
wanders with delight through a glorious epoch, all 
the richest beauties of which have been gathered to- 
gether around him, and the tree of art has been, as it 
were, shaken, to throw at his feet all its choicest 
fruits. We will pause at the Elizabethan Court 
only, which naturally presents the most national 



244 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

character, and a style of architecture which is less 
known in France. This phase of art was of but 
short duration in England; having burst out in all 
its glory towards the latter half of the sixteenth 
century, this peculiar style, to which Queen Eliza- 
beth gave her name, passed away about the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth, driven out by the progress 
of the Italian school in England. There are, how- 
ever, many who regret it. Certainly, from its mas- 
sive character, it was not wanting in a certain 
palatial grandeur, and it had, above all, the merit 
of originality. With its stonework curiously carved 
with the chisel, its architectural masses, which in 
their ensemble still retain some features of the style 
which was in all its glory in the Middle Ages, al- 
though differing in its details and ornamentation, 
roughly imitated from antiquity, it suited very well, 
not only to the days in which it nourished, but also 
to the country itself, and the materials which the 
latter furnished for the art of building. The castles 
and manor-houses of this period, built of red brick 
faced with boldly-carved stonework, with their 
deeply-set, strongly-fashioned windows, and lofty 
clusters of ornamented chimneys, still produce, when 
seen through the grand old trees, an imposing and 
picturesque effect. The architectural details intended 
to illustrate the style of the time of Elizabeth have 
been taken from Holland House, one of the most 
curious buildings in London. Those who planned 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 245 

the arrangements at the Crystal Palace have not 
been satisfied with setting forth the history of art by 
visible records only, but have also endeavoured, as 
we know, to call back to life past ages, and thus 
immerse, as it were, the spectator in the recollections 
and influences which they awaken. What age can 
be better adapted than Queen Elizabeth's to appeal to 
the feelings of the Englishman? Do they not find 
in this period the most romantic and heart-stirring 
pages of their annals and their brightest names in 
literature ? To assist the delusions of memory, they 
have assembled together various historical figures 
and works of art ; such as the tomb of the Countess 
of Norfolk and her sons, the original of which is 
in Salisbury Cathedral ; the monument of Sir John 
Cheney; that of Mary Stuart; and finally, the bust of 
Shakespeare, copied from his tomb in the church at 
S tr at ford -on -A von . 

The period of the Renaissance is also dear for other 
reasons to the heart of the English ; and they connect, 
and rightly so, the rise of the religious reformation 
with the revolt of the fine arts against the Church, 
with the discovery of printing, and with the hearty 
study of Greek and Latin literature. It was in the 
exploration of antiquity that erudition, guided, it is 
true, in some paths, by the lamp of religious faith, 
has, as is said, recovered the Bible. People may 
dispute, and they are free to do so, as to the origin 
of Protestantism in England, and as to the motives, 



246 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

more or less honourable, which gave rise to it; but 
there is one fact which no one can gainsay. By 
separating from Rome, Henry YIIL cut the cable 
which connected Great Britain with the Continent ; 
and it is especially from the date of this restless and 
troublous time that the English nation first began to 
develop its character, its institutions, and its moral 
and physical independence of the bonds of foreign 
orthodoxy. It became then the question, after the 
Renaissance Court, to sum up the unity of the British 
people in one important monument. 

This monument, to some extent the work of ima- 
gination, and executed from the plans of Mr. Digby 
Wyatt, stands at the very end of the nave ; it is a 
complete gallery of the kings and queens of Eng- 
land, from the days of the Saxon Heptarchy down to 
the Norman dynasty, and after that, to the reign of 
Victoria. In this long series, where monarch suc- 
ceeds monarch in chronological order, standing one 
over the other with some of the principal features of 
their epoch, one figure has been a source of consider- 
able embarrassment to the artists whose task it was 
to thus inscribe in stone the annals of then' nation ; 
could they admit among the kings him who was the 
means of cutting off the head of Charles I. ? That 
great man, who has not yet received a monument 
in Westminster Abbey, — could he stand up, in his 
great loose boots, his sword by his side, and his hat 
on his head, among the representatives of an institu- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 247 

tion which he did his best to destroy ? And yet, on 
the other hand, would not his absence leave an im- 
portant gap in history? Do not Englishmen, even 
the most devoted to monarchical views, trace back to 
him the organisation of their army, the extension of 
their commerce, and the excellence of their fleets? 
After some deliberation by the committee, the statue 
of Oliver Cromwell was excluded from the royal 
monument ; but it would naturally take its place in 
the gallery of celebrated men. In front of this array 
of sovereigns, there has been arranged, down the, 
whole length of the nave and transepts, busts or 
statues of great generals, statesmen, authors, scholars, 
and philosophers, belonging both to England and 
every other country. These 'latter show the bright, 
line of succession to the throne of thought, and the 
glorious lineage of human sciences. 

Here concludes the illustrated history of art ; it 
was doubtless necessary to begin with this, for an- 
cient communities have generally sought the beau- 
tiful in preference to the useful. In the Greek 
mythology, the haughty Juno blushed that she had 
been the mother of Vulcan, the representative of 
manual labour. In Rome the mechanical professions 
were always carried on by slaves. It is a charac- 
teristic of modern nations that they have brought 
with them into the various countries of Europe a 
new and aggressive power — I mean manufactures. 
This force was not developed to any extent in the 



248 KELIG-IOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Middle Ages, repressed as they were by the military 
and priestly regime, and it is subject to quite another 
law than the appreciation of the beautiful. Art 
among the Greeks, after a short but inevitable term 
of infancy, arrived at a pitch of perfection which has 
never been surpassed. In the successive galleries at 
the Crystal Palace, all representing various epochs, 
it is more variations of form that a visitor meets with 
than any real progress ; but this would not at all be 
the case with manufacture. Offspring of science, na- 
ture, and freedom of thought, she every day advances 
with the increasing domain embraced by human know- 
ledge. 

It would therefore, I think, have been both inter- 
esting and instructive to have collected together at 
the Crystal Palace the elements of a philosophical 
history of labour. Was there no room there to do 
for manufacture what they had already so success- 
fully effected in respect of the fine arts ? It would 
have been rather interesting to have watched the 
process of the separation of the working class from 
the races of chivalry, to see the useful professions 
take their rise, and trades and inventions succeeding 
one after the other. What nation could be better 
fitted than England to reproduce in actual representa- 
tions what is called by one of her writers the genesis 
of the useful arts ? The visitor to the Crystal Palace 
passes, without any transition whatever, from the 
monuments of the Renaissance into the full display 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 249 

of modern ingenuity. It may be very possible that 
the revival of the fine arts was not disconnected with 
the development of manufacture ; but still I think it 
would have been well to show the bonds of union 
which connect these two classes of things. Be all 
that as it may, we can perceive clearly enough, one 
after the other, the three great ages of history, — the 
priestly era, the military era, and the industrial era ; 
which last will always surely limit the authority of 
the two former ancient powers by widening the sphere 
of the people's influence. 

In the ornamentation of the Industrial Courts ano- 
ther plan has been followed ; and instead of endeavour- 
ing to give an idea of the various epochs, they have 
sought to specify and illustrate the local character 
of the different branches of manual labour. We do 
not now range about through former times, exploring 
the relics of departed civilisation, and the records of 
long-past ages ; our path now lies through the great 
manufacturing districts of modern geography. Thus, 
for instance, in the Birmingham Court, Mr. Tite has 
chosen, as means of decoration, iron-work as applied 
to architecture. The design of the iron lattice-work 
or screen, with its rich foliage and convolutions, 
belongs to the seventeenth century; but this work 
serves to point out one of the recent changes which 
have taken place in the art of metal- working. In 
former clays, iron ornaments were fashioned or 
wrought by the hammer; now they are cast in a 



250 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

mould. It is a recognised fact, that the latter method 
is much better adapted than the former to the damp 
climate of England, as cast-iron rusts very much less 
than wrought. Unfortunately, this beautiful court 
is like a frame without a picture. To those who 
have visited the town of Birmingham and its rich 
workshops, the court which bears its name will seem, 
alas, but very meagrely furnished. It has generally 
been found rather difficult to induce the great English 
manufacturers to form a permanent exposition of their 
productions. A step further on, and we are in Shef- 
field. The famous city of forges and workshops is 
represented, naturally enough, by specimens of cut- 
lery, steel implements, and imitation jewelry. An- 
other court has been devoted to articles of stationery 
generally. On the carved wooden panels which de- 
corate the interior of this court there are medallions' 
in which are represented Cupids engaged in the 
various mechanical processes of paper-making, print- 
ing, and engraving. Can this be an allusion to St. 
Yalen tine's day, and the intervention of these arts 
which then takes place in love affairs ? 

Each of these courts ought to be a school of in- 
struction, as well as a bazaar ; one ought to be able 
to follow out in them all the various transformations 
that the raw materials employed in manufactures are 
made to undergo by the hand of man. But is this 
the case ? The directors of the Crystal Palace have 
certainly desired to exhibit all the riches of modern 



EELTGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



251 



ingenuity, from those real achievements which inte- 
rest the thoughtful man, down to the toys and fancy 
objects which amuse the child ; but still, up to the 
present time, they have not taken much pains to ini- 
tiate the curious into the mysteries of manufacture. 
They might, however, have found in this a branch of 
instruction well capable of development, and also an 
element of material success ; for the Anglo-Saxon 
race is never much moved by the world of mere 
ideas, but, on the other hand, a drop of the blood of 
Prometheus courses through their veins whenever 
operations of manufacturing skill are in question. 

We now pass in succession through the Oriental 
Court, where they show, as a matter of course, the 
products of the Levant; the Bohemian Court, where 
the specimens of glass-ware are displayed ; and we 
shall willingly pause at the Ceramic Court, where the 
artist, workman, and antiquary will find, each from 
his own peculiar point of view, many objects most 
interesting to him. Mr. Battam has brought toge- 
ther in this rich collection all kinds of specimens 
showing the progress of the art of the potter from 
the days of antiquity down to our own time. We 
see here vases which might have adorned the table 
of Verres, dishes and plates from which the Medici 
may have dined, jewelled cups out of which the court 
of Louis XIY. may have drunk at Versailles. We 
may also remark here Mexican, Greek, and Etruscan 
vases, Chinese porcelain, and other curiosities which 



KELTGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



form an instructive contrast with the productions of 
Messein, Sevres, Berlin, Vienna, and Worcester. The 
progress in this branch of industry (but is it not the 
same in every other branch ?) has chiefly consisted in 
increasing the means of production, and varying the 
nature of the articles produced, so as to bring them 
readily within the reach of everyone. The working 
classes visit with some profit the Court of Machinery 
in Motion, where thousands of bobbins are revolving, 
and where the ponderous machines groan under the 
goading impetus of steam, where the carding combs 
tear, without cessation, either wool or cotton, with 
their pointed teeth. The countryman soon makes his 
way to the court devoted to agricultural implements. 
A more general interest, however, attaches to the 
Court of Inventions, where all useful discoveries, all 
the dreams of science mechanically applied, find, as 
it were, a right of citizenship. 

We find, then, that the establishment at Syden- 
ham is divided into two quite distinct portions — a 
temple of arts, and a palace of industry. Both these 
two divisions keep closely to the views of the found- 
ers ; if man elevates his ideas by the pursuit of the 
beautiful, he unfetters himself from the chain of ma- 
terial wants by the achievements of labour and the 
help of machinery. In natural history, the latter 
epochs of the earth have been impressed by a pecu- 
liar stamp by the entry on the scene of various useful 
species, from which men have deduced the stock of 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 253 



our domestic animals. Why should we not believe 
that something of the same sort has taken place, 
though in a different point of view, in the history of 
mankind ? Why should it not be the case, that the 
first appearance in our communities of the industrial 
classes marks the starting-point of the great progress 
in modern times ? Finally, the division of the Crys- 
tal Palace which is appropriated to manufactures, 
trade, and machinery, is visited with just as much 
partiality as the scries of monuments of art, although 
it is by a different class of the population. I have 
noticed English workmen stopping in the former de- 
partment the entire day, much to the displeasure of 
their wives, who would have liked to have had a look 
at the fountains playing, or at some of the fancy 
commodities, or at the delightful arabesques of the 
Alhambra. These men, though, were certainly an 
exception ; for workmen in general manifest astonish- 
ment mingled with admiration at the statues, the re- 
stored relics of architecture, the temples, the palaces, 
and all the great historical phantasmagoria which 
recall to view the features of past ages and extinct 
communities. 

The visitor is now at the place of departure — that 
entrance to the Crystal Palace at which man is re- 
presented in a savage state, just as he came out of 
the hands of nature. If this was the primitive con- 
dition of the human race, it is interesting to cast a 
last look down the long nave, illustrating, both right 



254 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

and left, the train of progress which has raised him 
from his original abject state. In this grand ideal 
spectacle we see race succeed to race, and communi- 
ties dividing off from one another with their various 
types, all approaching perfection the farther they are 
removed from their infant state. We all assist, as it 
were, in the metamorphoses of social life ; man ob- 
tains stone from those mighty rocks which build up 
the architecture of our globe, and he communicates 
to it the attributes of his religious faith, and the ideal 
of his political institutions. He wrenches from nature 
the secrets of her laws, and the materials which she 
has hidden away in the grudging bosom of the earth, 
and from them he evolves the rudiments of the useful 
arts. Not content with operating on the future of 
his destinies, one might almost venture to say that he 
has re-made himself. Compare the Hottentot woman 
with the Venus of Milo, and you will find it difficult 
to doubt that beauty also has not made progress in 
the development and modification of races. 

In each different community, the active, ruling 
principle of mankind seems varied; progress ceases 
in certain things, and is engrossed by new creations 
of thought. There are dark intervals, eclipses, gloomy 
times of transition, during which the veil of death 
seems to be descending over the world ; everything 
suffers, but everything revives, and one can after- 
wards detect the traces of the movement of thought 
which at length opened out a path amid the ruins. 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 255 

But that which has always increased, and is always 
increasing, is the feeling of right, and the love of 
liberty ; a conception worthy of the Almighty, and His 
relations with nature. This spectacle is a noble one, 
and a religious one ; far from intoxicating man with 
a false pride, it tells him that truth, like comfort, can 
only be got at by the sweat of the brow. 

I am not at all astonished that the Crystal Palace 
has been chosen several times as the best place for 
celebrating the birthdays of some of our great poets, 
such as Schiller and Burns. What temple can be 
more fitting for doing honour to their memories 
than that in which mankind celebrate their own 
struggles and their own changes ? Is not this build- 
ing at once a book, a poem, a history ? Even the 
new system of architecture which it inaugurates can- 
not fail to impress the spectator. What an amazing 
difference between this transparent hive, sheltering 
the labours of centuries, and the ancient Egyptian 
temples hollowed out at the side of some rocky moun- 
tain ! It really seems as if matter itself had wished 
to exalt and idealise itself, in order the better to re- 
ceive in these latter days the impression of the will 
of man. In one word, it needed a Palace of Glass. 

Does not this edifice contain also the germ of a 
new plan of education ? All the English physiolo- 
gists are agreed that too much dependence has been 
placed on memory in the instruction of youth. By 
imposing on the mind of childhood a system of ready- 



256 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

made knowledge, of which it can too often compre- 
hend the words only, do we not destroy in the bnd 
its unfettered judgment, its faculty of reasoning for 
itself, both the taste and the desire for depending on 
its own impressions of things ? Do we not graft on 
the trunk of its mind the living bud of false conven- 
tional ideas and generally-received opinions ? Many 
persons attribute to this plan of procedure the too 
common fund of general mediocrity, the slight re- 
sistance offered nowadays to arbitrary conclusions, 
and a kind of fear of exercising for oneself the powers 
of decision. The object seems rather to adorn the 
mind, than to invigorate its resources and sharpen its 
weapons. Is there not plenty of room for a change, 
by substituting, at least in part, a practical education 
by means of things and facts ? Can it not be brought 
about that an individual should direct his course, just 
as the whole race of men have trodden out for them- 
selves paths, leaning for guidance with one hand on 
nature, and the other on tradition ? To help in this 
research, by placing on the road both the materials 
of science and the monuments of history — this would 
be the future task of the fraternity of instructors. 

The Crystal Palace may be looked upon as an at- 
tempt, a first step in this new direction.* The prac- 



* A ladies' school has been recently attached to the establish- 
ment. For two or three guineas a quarter each pupil can attend 
a course of lectures, enjoying at their will all the intellectual riches 
of the Palace, and having the use of a library or reading-room, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 257 

tical mind of the English has been long convinced of 
the nothingness of certain notions, as short-lived as 
the words that convey them. Real knowledge can 
only be grafted on the mind of a child, as on the 
mind of a nation, by the intervention of actual im- 
pressions. This is the reason why they have sought, 
by a thus plastic course of study, to interest the 
senses in intellectual pleasures, and, by the sight of 
external objects, to inspire a taste for reading and 
thought. " The fruit of the tree of knowledge," says 
the Bible, "was pleasant to the eyes;" and it is by 
the fascinations of form that Ave must seek to allure 
the masses to enlightenment. By placing before the 
eyes, as in an ever-recurring drama, the history both 
of creation and of mankind, do we not furnish the 
spectator with means for tracing out for himself and 
linking together all those eternal laws which rule 
over the organisation of matter and the development 
of communities ? Some believers, perhaps, will find 
fault, that they have not clearly enough marked out 
that which Bossuet calls "the traces of the finger of 
God.'" These traces, and indeed the whole divine 
and providential plan of history, can readily be dis- 
covered by the conscience of each spectator, under 
the veil of events, of natural laws, and of the deve- 
lopments of mankind. 

Do not institutions like this — to which our neigh- 



composed of five thousand volumes of works, written principally 
upon the Fine Arts. 

S 



258 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

bours intentionally give the title of Palaces of the 
People — teach us something as to English society ? 
Do they not give a startling denial to those false 
ideas so commonly spread abroad on the French side 
of the Channel ? Great Britain has been too readily 
represented as an aristocratic nation ; if we were to 
believe certain writers, liberty is only preserved in 
England by its being based on a rigid division of 
classes, on the grandeur of a secular nobility on the 
one hand, and on the abasement and ignorance of 
the multitude on the other. If such were really the 
essential conditions of liberty, they would long hesi- 
tate before they adopted her banner. Happily, it is 
the exact contrary which is true. I do not deny but 
that the English follow after and honour their social 
hierarchy ; but they look to their liberty for limiting 
the weight of certain influences, and for elevating, 
by enlightening, their most numerous classes. 

Where else would you find palaces of education 
built, not by the action of the Government, but by 
the money of voluntary contributors ? In what other 
country could the workman have at his disposal his 
fountains, like those of Louis XIY. at Versailles, his 
park all peopled with statues, and his pleasure-palace 
where, for one shilling, he can walk about with his 
wife and children, amid all the splendours of art, and 
all the teachings of history ? The most absolute mon- 
arch would have hesitated at the expense of giving 
so princely a course of education to his only son. I 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 259 

shall be told that the working classes are not the 
only ones to profit by these advantages. No, doubt- 
less ; this palace has been built for all; but 0, it is a 
liberal idea, thus joining together all classes of so- 
ciety, from the peer to the bricklayer, on the neutral 
ground of general instruction and high-minded re- 
creation. Governments who dreaded the people 
would not have acted thus ; they would more readily 
have opened to them the broad path of coarse and 
physical pleasures, well knowing that a besotted mul- 
titude is all the easier to be led. The Coliseum and 
the taverns of Rome were a necessity for the Caesars. 
Liberty is more moral ; as she claims the honour of 
reigning over the mind alone, she willingly opens up 
to the million the prospect of the ideal and the paths 
of progress. 

The Church of England has herself set the ex- 
ample of connecting education with religion ; she 
cannot therefore wonder if science, philosophy, and 
the fine arts, have thought proper to bring together, • 
as the elements of their moral creed, the traditions 
of mankind, the lessons of facts, and the aspirations 
of free thought. Let us now, however, hasten to re- 
turn to the subject of Religious Life more properly 
so called. 



CHAPTER X. 

Eeligious life in foreign missions — Ubiquity of England — Her 
moral conquests in the regions not under her sway — The 
Bible Society — Stereo-typography — The confusion of tongues 
— Difficulties met with in translating the Bible into the 
ancient Eastern dialects — William Wilberforce — Colpo?'teurs 
— The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts — The Church Missionary Society — The Baptist Mis- 
sionary Society — Museum of the London Missionary Society — 
A god eaten by rats — A new idol, manufactured by Christians 
— The Wesleyan Missionary Society. 

We must turn our eyes across the seas to find Eng- 
land's chiefest glory. Her power lies in her ubiquity. 
Without mentioning her established colonies, what 
country, whether tropical or ice-bound, can evade the 
adventurous spirit of her emigrants? Where is the 
•coast un visited by her ships? Material force would 
be found of but little avail in protecting such an 
aggregate of political and commercial interests. The 
cannon of her war-ships, however numerous and 
powerful the latter might be, would certainly fail in 
enforcing respect to the Queen's flag floating over 
every sea. England, therefore, has long since had 
recourse to a system of moral influence in order to 
establish the unity of her empire from pole to pole. 
One of the least-known elements of this system is the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 261 

plan of religious propagandism. They endeavour by 
a community in faith to assimilate to their own type 
those nations which they might vainly think of con- 
quering by force of arms. Protestant missionaries 
have been the instruments, all over the world, of a 
conquest in which nothing is due to military enter- 
prise, but which often opens <*ut a path for the inter- 
vention and ultimate supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon 
race. Thanks to these champions of the faith, Eng- 
land now reigns over many territories which she 
never conquered, and her spiritual weapons have car- 
ried her on far in advance of her warlike banners. In 
every country, even the most remote, she dissemi- 
nates a Book as her representative and ambassador. 

Whenever any really national work is set about 
in England, it is not the Government but society at 
large which takes it up. We must, therefore, not be 
surprised to find that the foreign missions are sup- 
ported by the free donations and the independent 
efforts of the various religious bodies. The principal 
energies and appliances for this great proselytising 
movement are, of course, concentrated in London ; 
and there, at their starting-point, must we -contem- 
plate these Christian travellers, before we accompany 
them on their dangerous mission. 

One of the districts of London which has been the 
most turned upside down by the opening of the new 
lines of railway, and by the construction of the em- 
bankment on one of the banks of the Thames, is, with- 



262 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

out question the neighbourhood of Blackfriars. The 
river there, diverted from a portion of its natural bed, 
and narrowed by an artificial bank, on which cart- 
loads of earth are every moment being unloaded, is 
besides crossed by three bridges at intervals of not 
many yards. One of these three bridges, based on 
cast-iron columns, affords a way to the monstrous loco- 
motives, rolling like thunder as they run over it ; the 
second, made of wood, gives to foot-passengers and 
carriages a temporary means of crossing to the other 
bank ; while of the third, nothing can as yet be seen 
but some stout granite pillars just rising above the 
surface of the water. Not far from the scene of all 
these operations and of this Babel-like confusion, 
branches off a little street, called Earl-street, which 
also will have to undergo considerable changes. It 
is expected that the line of embankment now being 
constructed will send on an immense amount of traffic 
towards the city ; and to open a way for this new tide 
of men and carriages the Metropolitan Board of Works 
have lately resolved to make a long wide street to 
connect the new bridge at Blackfriars with the Man- 
sion-house. In order to facilitate the course of this 
new artery of communication, half of Earl-street will 
have to be pulled down. After all, there is not much 
to regret in this street ; there is, however, among 
the buildings doomed to destruction, one which well 
deserves our attention. 

On the outside, it is simply a large brick house, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 263 

having nothing very remarkable about it ; but over 
the doorway we read Bible Society. There, for more 
than half a century, a committee has sat whose in- 
fluence has more or less made itself felt to the very 
ends of the earth. The Bible Society is one of the 
great citadels of English Protestantism ; in place 
of artillery it has its printing presses, from which 
books emanate by millions, printed in a hundred and 
sixty-nine different languages, and in every variety 
of type. Inside, it is taken up with counting-houses, 
warehouses, rooms for meetings, and a library of a 
sacred character, containing 5000 volumes and ma- 
nuscripts. The history of this institution is closely 
bound up with the annals of religious propagandism 
in Great Britain, the English colonies, and even in 
those remote isles which ships seldom touch at. 

The Bible Society was founded in 1804. The 7th 
of March, in that year, a meeting took place at the 
London Tavern ; about 300 persons attended ; and a 
sum of about 1001. was soon collected for the pur- 
pose of increasing and encouraging the circulation of 
the Bible. No sooner was it established than the 
Society at once went to work ; and in 1805 it sent 
forth into the world a first edition of the New Testa- 
ment in English. About this time the art of stereo- 
typing, which had been long known in Europe, but 
up to that period had been found not feasible in 
practice, made great progress in England under the 
direction of Earl Stanhope and Robert Wilson, the 



264: EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

engineer. This process was the means of rendering 
important services to the Bible Society, by enabling 
it to multiply copies cheaply, so as to sell them at a 
very low price.* 

The number and variety of dialects caused a con- 
siderable degree of complication in the task of the 
Society. Only to mention their own country, there 
are five distinct languages in the British isles, — the 
Welsh, the ancient Irish or Erse, Gaelic, Manx,f 
and English. It was necessary to translate the Bible 
into all these idioms before printing it. The diffi- 
culty, of course, became much greater when the 
Society directed its efforts towards the continent of 
Europe, and most especially so when the other parts 
of the world were in question. What a multiplicity of 
various indications of thought ! how many languages 
are there of which one does not even know the name, 
and letters which seem to defy the human intellect ! 
The Society, nevertheless, triumphed over all these 
obstacles ; and either the whole Bible or portions of it 
are, at the present day, printed in fourteen Polyne- 



* After a long trial, the process of stereotyping has been, in 
great part, relinquished. The Society at present prefers another 
plan. They have the whole book composed, and keep the leaden 
type fixed, or in form. It has been considered that in this way 
type wears out less quickly, and that errors in printing are easier 
to correct. This process requires, it is true, a considerable ex- 
pense at the commencement ; but it is the most economical in the 
end. 

f A Celtic dialect peculiar to the Isle of Man. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 2G5 

sian dialects, in nineteen African idioms, and in fif- 
teen primitive languages of the New World. "Who 
would not be puzzled at the very sight of Chinese 
writing, as hieroglyphical and impenetrable as the 
civilisation of that mysterious people? Well, so 
great is the facility wl;ich the English have latterly 
acquired in printing books in Chinese, that a trans- 
lation of the New Testament, which used once to 
cost two guineas, can now be sold for threepence 
halfpenny in the shops at Pekin. In India, there 
was another virgin forest for them to cut into ; but 
to do this satisfactorily, it was necessary to master 
some very difficult idioms. One of the members of 
the Society, to whom was committed the task of trans- 
lating the Bible into Tamil (the language spoken by 
nearly 12,000,000 of the inhabitants of India), had 
studied it for twelve years, and another one, fourteen 
years, before undertaking this delicate task. One of 
the greatest obstacles which the translators of the 
sacred volume have had to contend with is the in- 
sufficiency of religious expressions amid the poetical 
richness of the Oriental languages. The words are 
wanting, because the ideas which they should ex- 
press are quite unknown to certain races of man- 
kind.* In spite of all this, the Society have success- 



* One instance will suffice, I think, to point out the nature of 
this difficulty. Mr. Thompson, a missionary who was commis- 
sioned to translate the Scriptures into Thibetian, some time back, 
complained that he could find no word in this language which 



266 KELIGIOUS LIFE LN ENGLAND. 

fully carried out their plans with regard to about 
forty dialects which nourish in India and Ceylon. 
The total number of translations amounts to 207, and 
since 1804 the institution has disseminated in the 
world more than forty -six million copies of the Bible. 

The management of the Bible Society rests in a 
committee composed of thirty-six laymen. Among 
these influential members, six are foreigners residing 
in London or its environs, the remainder are Eng- 
lish, and divided into two equal moieties, one belong- 
ing to the Church of England, and the other to the 
various Christian Dissenting bodies. The committee 
meet regularly at the Society's house the first and 
third Mondays in each month. The committee itself 
nominates a president, vice-president, and secretaries, 
all of whom have the right of voting, as also any 
members of the clergy of the Church of England, or 



answered to the idea of justice. " I have also sought in vain," 
he added, "for a word by which to designate conscience." The 
translator was obliged to employ a periphrase — "the distinguish- 
ing oetmeen good and evil." The case is the same in the terms, 
spirit, vision, trance, to judge, to condemn, to reconcile, — all of 
which have no equivalents in the idioms of Thibet. The trance of 
the Orientals, for instance, is a different kind of phenomenon to 
that among Christians, — the natural and voluntary transport of 
the soul out of the world of sense. Death itself, as a substantive 
and the equivalent of a fact, has no existence among the Thi- . 
betians ; they only recognise things that are dead. Mr. Thompson 
made inquiries among the lamas, the scholars of the country ; 
but all he could gather from them only served to show more 
clearly how great a difference existed between their mode of 
thought and ours, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 2G7 

any of the Dissenting ministers who wish to take a 
part in the meetings. Among their vice-presidents 
was the celebrated William Wilberforce, who, in 
1803, was instrumental in passing the Act of Parlia- 
ment for the abolition of slavery in all the English 
colonies. The committee then held a meeting to 
testify to him their satisfaction at this great measure. 
All the authority is primarily derived from the an- 
nual meeting, which is held on the 1st of May, and 
at which all the members of the Society have a right 
to attend. The committee itself, as well as the trea- 
surer, are elected by this meeting, before entering on 
their duties, and the accounts and the report are then 
sanctioned. In order to become a member of the 
Society, it is necessary to pay one guinea a year; 
those who pay down ten guineas at once are life- 
members. 

The principal sources of revenue are subscrip- 
tions, legacies, donations, and the collections in the 
various churches, chapels, and schools. The opera- 
tions of the Society are assisted also by the concur- 
rence of the Auxiliary and Branch Societies, which 
number 3887 in the United Kingdom, and 1059 in 
the colonies and other English dependencies. The 
members of these auxiliaries very often pay no more 
than a penny a week ; but tiny rivulets joined to- 
gether form great rivers. In 1804, the new-born 
institution collected only 640 1. ; its annual receipts 
now amount to more than 160, 000 1. The Branch 



268 BELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Societies furnish them, in addition, with allies in 
every inhabited country. The old house in Earl- 
street, whence the Bibles wing their way, is known 
even among the savages in the Fejee Islands. En- 
dowed with almost incalculable powers of expansion, 
this Society embraces the whole world. It may well 
give to its work the epithet of Catholic* 

In 1845, the Bible Society adopted a system of 
colportage, which very much helped to extend the 
sale of their books. These colporteurs, or book- 
hawkers, form quite a distinct class among the Eng- 
lish population. They are especially to be met with 



* In reference to these great exertions to spread the Scriptures, 
is it not natural to* ask how this English Bible was formed, which, 
at the present time, serves as prototype to almost all the trans- 
lations which are being made into foreign languages? From the 
time of Wycliffe down to the reign of James L, England had no 
generally accredited version of the Holy Scriptures. James I., to 
supply this want, selected fifty-four learned men who were distin- 
guished in this class of study. Forty-seven of them set to work. 
They were divided into six independent classes, to each of which 
a portion of the work was assigned. Each person had to produce 
his translation, and submit it to a council of his colleagues. When 
a class was agreed upon the version for any portion of the book, 
this version was communicated to all the other classes, so that 
each fragment received the sanction of the entire body. Their 
labour lasted for three years — from 1607 to 1610. The first copy 
proceeded from the printing-press of Eobert Barker in 1611. The 
study of the Oriental languages was not then in a very advanced 
stage, and many of these scholars, who were officially nominated, 
were doubtless wanting in critical acumen. Their translation of 
the Bible, accepted as it is both by the Established Church and 
the Dissenters, is not, however, on this account the less recognised 
as one of the monuments of English literature. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 269 

in the hop-gardens at the season of hop-picking, at 
the fairs, markets, and other places of public resort. 
At Newcastle, at the Royal Agricultural Show in 
1864, one of them set up near the show-place a 
little tent in which people might take refuge in case 
of rain. He took advantage of this plan to offer his 
goods, and succeeded in selling 1449 copies of the 
Bible. Others choose steamers or the docks for 
their sphere of operations ; and in the year 1864, 
4807 Bibles were bought, thanks to the energy of 
the colporteurs, by the crews of the 15,715 vessels 
which navigate the Thames. These Bible emissa- 
ries, of course, do not all obtain a like success ; 
those, for instance, who travel in parts of the 
country where the cottages are widely scattered 
about, must naturally get rid of fewer copies than 
would be the case in the manufacturing districts, 
although the efforts used may have been at least 
as great. The difficulty is to make an excuse for 
not buying, for they offer you the same book printed 
in type adapted to every condition of sight, from 
infancy up to old age ; they even have them with 
letters in relief, for the use of the blind. There was 
one thing which displeased me in some of these col- 
porteurs ; and this was a kind of mystical and cant- 
ing jargon that they made use of, joined with con- 
siderable cunning and talent for business. There 
are some who even go so far as to make use of some 
of the menaces contained in the Book they offer, in 



270 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

order to force the sale of their stock. Taken alto- 
gether, however, they are a moral and pretty-well 
educated class. 

For some years past the Bible Society has taken 
up the idea of making use of the assistance of women 
for this kind of service. Under the appellation of 
Bible-women, there are now in England about two 
hundred of these female Bible-agents, for whom the 
committee vote every year a sum of 840/. by way of 
salaries. They are more winning in their ways than 
the men are, and, with their ready tongues and de- 
cent and modest air, they make their way to the very 
fire -side of the poor, under the plea of imparting to 
them the blessing of the Word of God. The Society 
sells its books at an incredibly low price ; but except 
in some peculiar cases, they believe that if they gave 
them away, they would diminish the value they would 
wish to see set upon them ; for the English do not 
much esteem anything they do not pay for. 

This system of colportage has been extended far 
beyond the limits of Great Britain. It has been 
organised on the same principles over the whole of 
Europe, in China, in Turkey, in India — in fact, 
throughout the entire world. More than once poli- 
tical revolutions have been found to favour the views 
of this Society, by breaking down the barriers which 
have been set up in certain Catholic countries against 
the free course of the trade in books. Thus, in the 
former kingdom of Naples, since its union with the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 271 

rest of Italy, the sale of Bibles has been increased by 
many thousands of copies ; we see from this that the 
committee of the Bible Society have had good cause 
to thank Garibaldi. The same state of things was 
brought about in France after the revolution of 1848. 
In Eastern countries, the trade of Bible-hawking is 
very often carried on by converted Jews, who unite 
all the zeal of a proselyte with the discernment of 
a broker. Besides the salaried agents, the Society 
counts in England and elsewhere a large number of 
voluntary helpers. It would scarcely be believed, 
that a fertile field for the spread of the Bible is found 
in the public-house. In one district only in Eng- 
land 7388 Bibles were sold in three years at the 
houses of about a hundred publicans, amongst work- 
men who had come in with the intention of spending 
the Saturday evening. By the help of all these means 
the Society issued in 1864, 2,495,118 copies. 

After such a diffusion of the Scriptures as this, 
how can it be wondered at that they are to be met 
with almost everywhere in England ? Go into the 
waiting-room at a railway station, and the only 
volume that you will find to dispel the ennui of time 
is the one that teaches you about eternity. If one 
sleeps at an hotel, the Bible lies beside the bed, on 
the bed-room table. When a party of emigrants are 
leaving the ports of London, Liverpool, or South- 
ampton, the mother country bids them adieu, and, 
as it were, follows them over the sea, by means of a 



272 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



Bible. The committee regulates all these distribu- 
tions, and they call it " casting bread upon the 
waters." What is it that the English missionary- 
preaches on every far distant desert where he pitches 
his tent? The Bible — always the Bible. It is re- 
lated, that Queen Victoria replied to the delegates 
of some semi-barbarous nation who manifested in 
her presence a kind of rapture at the sight of the 
marvels of British civilisation, " I will show you the 
source of our social greatness ;" and at the same time 
presented to them a Bible. Whether this anecdote 
be true or false, this way of looking at the matter is 
shared by the greater part of the nation. Can it be 
possible that a book so generally pervading society 
should not have made a marked impression on the 
mind and manners of the English ? It is not my 
task, however, to trace out the course of this in- 
fluence, except as regards the relations of Great 
Britain with foreign races. 

The Bible Society is not the only association 
which makes it its business to multiply the Scrip- 
tures in the same way as the five loaves in the 
wilderness ;* but a book so foreign to the ideas and 
customs of anti- Christian nations can hardly speak 
intelligibly by itself. It has therefore been thought 
necessary to call in the aid of the vivifying influence 



* Among the most active, I must name the Society for Pro- 
moting Christian Knowledge. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 273 

of interpretation. In fact, the Bible Societies are 
closely allied with the Missionary Societies, of which 
there are no less than forty-one in the United King- 
dom ; but it will only be necessary to notice the 
most important of these. 

The most ancient, and unquestionably one of the 
principal societies, is the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which was established 
in 1701. It was at first intended to diffuse Chris- 
tian instruction in the British colonies only ; but, not 
being satisfied with devoting its efforts to possessions 
covering an extent of 9,000,000 of square miles, at 
the present day it invades many other lands over 
which the Queen's flag does not float. The celebrated 
John Wesley was one of the missionaries of this 
Society, by which he was sent to America from 1735 
to 1738. At the date of its establishment, it could 
number no more than twenty of its emissaries to 
distant lands ; its jurisdiction and assistance now 
extend over 3000 clergymen of the Church of Eng- 
land, spread over every part of the world. Through- 
out the vast regions to which its influence penetrates, 
it lays down the episcopal and parochial system just 
as it exists in the mother country, and thus imprints 
on countries of the most various characters the com- 
mon stamp of Protestant Church, organisation. This 
Society, at the head of which stand the Archbishop 
of Canterbury and all the highest ecclesiastical dig- 
nitaries of the kingdom, enjoys a revenue which 

T 



274 EELIGIOUS LIFE LN ENGLAND. 

amounted, in 1864, to 102,997Z., derived from sub- 
scriptions and voluntary gifts. 

Another great institution, likewise founded on the 
principles of the Established Church, is the Church 
Missionary Society. It took its rise in London, in 
1799, at a meeting of clergy and laymen. During 
the two first years it only managed to get together 
the small sum of 17 11. Its pecuniary resources cer- 
tainly increased a little in time ; but as for men for 
its purpose, that is, missionaries, there seemed an 
absolute want of them in England. The coast of 
Africa, and particularly the neighbourhood of Sierra 
Leone, where they proposed to begin their opera- 
tions, were then considered the most unhealthy re- 
gions in the world. About the same time, another 
Protestant Missionary Society existed in Germany, 
where they could find plenty of men, but no money. 
The two institutions formed mutual arrangements ; 
the English agreed to furnish funds, if the Germans 
would undertake to provide soldiers for this new 
work of moral conquest. Thus they were foreigners, 
these first champions who entered the lists, and who 
opened up the path for British enterprise in these 
much-dreaded countries. There is one remarkable 
fact : that the women of England showed at that 
time more courage than the men ; the German 
missionaries, who most of them married in England 
before they went out, took with them their English 
brides, bravely determined to incur all the dangers 



KEL1GI0US LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



of the climate. At the present day, what a change 
has taken place ! Englishmen have now replaced 
the foreign element in the personnel of the missions ; 
and to what an immense extent has the circle of 
their work been enlarged ! The Society now sends 
out 680 Christian labourers to work at the conversion 
of the world ; its emissaries preach or teach in more 
than fifty different languages, and its 800 schools 
afford Christian instruction to 36,000 children or 
adults, chosen among all the tribes of the human 
race. In 1865, the Church Missionary Society col- 
lected in the United Kingdom the enormous sum of 
144,464/. Provided with such resources as these, 
she doubtless handles a most powerful lever, worked 
by the intelligence of the Protestant clergy in almost 
every part of the world. 

The Dissenting denominations have been very far 
indeed from remaining isolated from this religious 
conquest of the universe by the influence of English 
ideas. In 1786, Dr. Carey, the minister of a Bap- 
tist congregation, drew the attention of his brethren 
to the state of idolatrous countries generally. He 
had been attracted to the idea of Christian proselyt- 
ism by a great love of geography, and he wished to 
give a sacred impulse to this study of the terrestrial 
globe and its languages. In 1791 he broached the 
subject at a meeting of Baptist ministers, held at 
Clipstone in Northamptonshire. A year later, a so- 
ciety was formed under the name of the Baptist Mis- 



276 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

sionary Society. Some time after. Dr. Carey left for 
the East Indies, and a printing-press was soon estab- 
lished there, at Serampore. He was endowed with 
the gift of languages to an almost incredible degree, 
and translated the Scriptures, in conjunction with his 
brother missionaries, into forty or fifty different idioms 
for the use of the various tribes of Hindoos. His 
death, which took place in 1834, was a blow to every 
friend of learning. 

This society of Baptist missionaries, which, in 
1865, enjoyed an annual income of 28,744Z., owes 
a great part of its success to its spirit of toleration 
and prudence. In 1805 it recommended to its 
missionaries to pay respect to the prejudices of the 
Hindoos, by refraining from any violent attacks upon 
their idols, and from interfering in the ceremonies of 
their worship. " Gospel conquests," it added, "must 
be conquests of love." This same association now 
extends its labours and its struggles to several other 
parts of the world. It has been latterly somewhat 
mixed up in the sad events which have taken* place 
in Jamaica; it had predicted them, and believed no 
doubt that it could avert them, by vigorously de- 
nouncing to the local government the just grievances, 
as it thought, of the black race. 

In Bloomfield - street, Finsbury, stands a new 
stone building belonging to the London Missionary 
Society, founded in 1795 by Christians of various de- 
nominations, but which has been mostly supported 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 277 

by the Independents.* The walls of the waiting- 
rooms, and the private rooms of the directors, are 
covered with the portraits of missionaries and their 
wives. To this phalanx of Christian warriors belong 
the illustrious names of Morrison, Ellis, Moffat, and 
Livingstone. I visited also, with much interest, a 
museum of objects collected by the Christian travel- 
lers in the vast mission-field of the Society. Although 
the natural history of the different climates, and the 
domestic life and employments of the various tribes 
of the human species, are all pretty well represented 
in this gallery, the collection of idols is by far the 
most curious part of it. Who would not be struck 
with the sight of the singular monuments of this 
graphic history of various forms of worship ? The 
gods, which are the creation of the inferior races, 
look like the embryos of the more perfect gods which 
follow them in other religious systems. Through 
what a series of avatars has the idea of the Supreme 
Being developed itself in the human mind ! 

The series of idols in this museum commences 
with the gods of Polynesia. When, in 1818, the 
King Pomare was converted to Christianity, he sent 
his family idols to the English missionaries. " T 



* Enjoying a revenue of 91,048Z., the London Missionary- 
Society maintains 167 European missionaries, 700 schoolmasters 
belonging to various races, all more or less barbarous, and eight 
colleges for instructing missionaries and catechists from among 
the natives themselves. 



278 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

wish," he stated in a letter, " that you would send 
them to England, to show them there the appearance 
of the gods which Otahiti used to worship." I must 
say that these images are not much credit to the 
nation which sacrificed to them. Most of them are 
lumps of wood roughly carved, on which the savage 
has imprinted the character of his low and voracious 
instincts. For instance, what can be thought of an 
idol with scarcely any head, and all of it taken up 
with an immense mouth armed with pointed teeth ? 
Some of these fetishes have been rendered even more 
ugly and ridiculous by certain commonplace acci- 
dents ; thus, Tarignarue, the great god of Atui, was 
nearly eaten up by the rats which had taken up their 
abode in the inside of the statue. One really feels 
inclined to turn away the head with shame at these 
hideous nightmares of religious feeling, and pass on 
to the commonplace divinities of China. These sen- 
sual and familiar-looking idols point out a people de- 
void of much sense of the ideal, even in the fancies of 
art; but still how far removed they are from those 
hideous abortions, the Polynesian gods ! The grander 
mythology of India seems to tower over this fright- 
ful series of images ; and in its strange and symbolic 
types there are some which even approach the pro- 
portions of beauty. Among the divinities of this land, 
so fertile in marvels, figures, in a rather unlooked- 
for way, an elegant statuette of the Virgin and Child. 
This effigy has had strange destinies : having been 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



279 



fashioned in gilt wood by an Italian artist, it was 
taken out to the East Indies by the Catholic mission- 
aries ; admitted, in the lapse of time, into the Pan- 
theon of the Hindoo faith, all kinds of virtue were 
attributed to it, and its removal caused a real con- 
sternation in the country. Is not this too often the 
history of missions ? They seek to destroy the super- 
stitions of a people, and in doing so bring them fresh 
idols. 

The Wesleyans, who form one of the most exten- 
sive and most active denominations in Great Britain, 
could not fail to claim their share of influence in a 
work so profoundly national. Since 1786 they have 
had emissaries in different quarters of the globe ; but 
it was not until 1816 that the society was formed 
known under the name of the Wesleyan Missionary 
Society. Dr. Coke, one of the first Methodist mis- 
sionaries, met with considerable opposition in the 
West Indies from the slave-owners. The planters 
there declared themselves against the Bible, under 
the pretence that a slave knowing how to read was 
no longer fit to fulfil the duties of his condition. This 
society, winch occupies the Centenary Hall, a large 
building with columns in front, collected in 1864 the 
sum of 141,899Z. Every branch of English Protest- 
antism, then, as we see, manifests a devoted liberality 
and a self-denying spirit of sacrifice, at least equal 
to any other religion, no matter which. The capital 
engaged in the field of Foreign Missions is estimated 



280 KELIG10US LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

at near a million of money. Let us hasten, then, to 
consider the works of these rich societies. In the 
series of English missions, extending over the whole 
earth, we shall see the spirit of Christianity grappling 
with all the gradations of the human intellect, from 
the savage who can with difficulty spell out a few 
lines, to those ancient Eastern communities where 
art and poetry found their primitive home. 



CHAPTER XL 

The John Williams— The Duff— History of the South-Sea mis- 
sions — John Williams the missionary — His Messenger of 
Peace— Cannibal tribes — W. Ellis — Man-eating gods, even 
where their worshippers have ceased to eat one another — The 
. savage's idea as to the religion of the English — Polynesian 
legends — It is easier to change the gods of a nation than the 
heart of man — Native agents — Story of Elekana — The mis- 
sionaries teach the savages the use of the alphabet — How can 
a written message speak when it has no mouth ? — Introduc- 
tion of domestic animals — A pair of shoes stolen by rats — An 
Englishwoman weeping because she had ceased to like beef — 
The savages' wives in bonnets and crinoline — The proselytism 
of fashions — Alteration in manners — Missionary life — Their 
houses — Their wives — Hurricanes — Man-stealers. 

On the 4tli of January 1866 there lay at anchor in 
the river at Gravesend a ship which had never yet 
braved the dangers of the deep. This was the new 
John Williams ; it had taken the place of a vessel of 
the same name, which, after twenty years in the Pa- 
cific Ocean, sank on the 17th May 1864, within sight 
of Danger Island ; the shipwrecked mariners being 
rescued by the very savages to whom, at the time 
of its first visit, this ship had brought the glad tidings 
of Christianity. The news of this disaster caused a 
considerable sensation, and the children in Danger 
Island, imitated also by the young people in the 
other adjacent islands, forwarded various offerings 



282 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

for the construction of another John Williams. Those 
who were without money brought oil, coffee, tobacco, 
and arrowroot. The London Missionary Society, to 
whom the shipwrecked vessel belonged, did its part 
by opening a subscription, which was mostly made 
up by the children in the English schools, and soon 
reached the amount of more than 12,000/. Aided 
by these voluntary donations, they built in the ship- 
yards at Aberdeen this proud vessel, which, now all 
fitted out, was about to face the perils of the Southern 
Ocean. 

Ten passengers, the missionaries and their wives, 
were standing on her deck, taking leave of all that 
was around them ; six of them were destined for the 
Navigators' Islands, the four others for Raratonga 
and Huaheine. The last moment before the setting 
sail of a ship is always a solemn one ; but in this 
case the length of the voyage, and the purely moral 
aim which this vessel was meant to accomplish across 
the seas, added much to the emotion of the lookers- 
on. One would have looked in vain, however, for 
all those scenes of distress and confusion which so 
generally prevail under similar circumstances. The 
countenances of the travellers, especially of the fe- 
males, expressed but a light shade of melancholy, 
and were lighted up with a ray of calm and self- 
possessed enthusiasm. Among the chief character- 
istics of English missionaries is somewhat of an 
erratic propensity joined with their religious feelings. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 283 

If faith can still be found upon the earth, surely it 
is amongst these men that we ought to look for it. 
Their families, from whom they are not always sepa- 
rated in their far-distant expeditions, give them a 
great advantage over the Catholic priests. Who 
forms the truest Protestant missionary amid more or 
less idolatrous races? Few could fail to answer — 
Woman ; for on her and her children the London 
societies reckon, even more than upon the man, for 
insinuating the graces of English Christianity into the 
good opinions of the savage. 

In the mean time the John Williams, all her sails 
spread, seemed to tremble with impatience. After 
various signals, the captain's voice gave the word 
to weigh anchor, and the ship sailed on her first 
voyage. The crowd around followed her with their 
eyes for some time; all the other numerous ships 
ploughing the surface of the water were but the 
emissaries of business, — she alone was the represen- 
tative of an idea. 

The London Missionary Society was the first to 
enter upon the virgin field of Polynesia. In 1796, it 
sent nineteen labourers for the faith to Otahiti in 
the ship Duff, a vessel which had been bought ex- 
pressly for this service, and which will always remain 
famous in the annals of British missions. At first 
starting, however, its fate was not a fortunate one. 
It being war-time, the Duff, during a second voyage, 
was captured in the South Sea by a French priva- 



284 KELIOIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

teer, which brought her into Eio Janeiro. The 
twenty -nine missionaries who took part in this 
second expedition returned to England after ten 
months' absence, without having even reached the 
end of their voyage. Thirteen other missionaries 
were conveyed in 1800, by a vessel in which a 
malignant fever broke out ; three died or abandoned 
their companions. Nearly every one began to ask 
whether this work were worth the lives, money, and 
sacrifices which it had put England to the cost of. 
On the other hand, the state of the mission was 
deplorable : the savages, who were at first favour- 
ably disposed to the strangers, had ended by turn- 
ing against them. Desertion also had invaded their 
ranks. One of the missionaries had married an ido- 
latrous wife, and another had altogether renounced 
his religion. To all this must be added the diffi- 
culties which were inherent in any undertaking of 
this kind. At the beginning the missionaries had 
everything to learn — the history, the manners, the 
geography even of the country. As there was, of 
course, neither grammar nor dictionary of the lan- 
guage, which had never been written in any form, it 
was necessary for them to pick it up as they heard 
it, and to reproduce, as well as they could, the 
strange and rough sounds which came from the 
mouths of the aborigines. How, then, could one 
expect but that the first field of their labours should 
be unfruitful ? The missionaries were compelled to 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 285 

leave Otahiti in 1810, and to betake themselves to 
New South Wales. In fact, all seemed lost, when, 
about the year 1812, the conversion to Christianity 
of the Queen Pomare caused a sudden change to 
come over the face of things. It was not, however, 
until the end of 1818, the epoch when the celebrated 
missionary champion, John Williams, entered the 
lists, that English influence could be said to have 
really made its way into this isle-bespotted ocean. 

John Williams lived eighteen years among the 
savages, and travelled 100,000 miles for their sakes. 
At first he was limited to the island of Raiatea, but 
he soon longed to spread the Gospel in the Hervey 
Island group, and in the archipelago of the Navi- 
gators' Islands ; but as it is impossible to pass over 
the seas on foot, and there were no means of pass- 
age at his disposal, he resolved to construct a vessel 
for himself. The missionary went bravely to work ; 
but before beginning on the vessel, it was necessary 
for him to make the requisite tools with his own 
hands. There were only four goats on the island in 
his time, one of which gave milk. John Williams 
killed three of them, and endeavoured from their 
skins to contrive a bellows for his forge. Unfor- 
tunately he had not reckoned on the rats, which 
swarmed in these savage countries ; and they ate up 
his work. By dint of perseverance, and with the 
help of the aborigines, to whom he had taught the 
first principles of naval architecture, he succeeded, 



286 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

in spite of all difficulties, in launching a kind of 
Noah's Ark, not so bad-looking after all, to which 
he gave the name of the Messenger of Peace. Such 
a vessel could hardly be expected to stand against a 
very stormy sea, as there was such a deficiency in 
the means for construction. It was made out of 
pieces of wood barely joined together with little bits 
of iron ; the hull was done over with a mixture of 
lime and the gum of the bread-fruit tree, to serve 
instead of pitch ; whilst the sails were formed of the 
mats used by the natives to lie on, sewn together so 
as to hold the wind. Nevertheless, in this frail craft 
John Williams fearlessly commenced his voyage of 
discovery. This fifth quarter of the world was, in 
fact, so little known then, that it was mainly by the 
aid of the legends and vague indications afforded him 
by the aborigines that he succeeded in finding out 
some of the islands hidden in the vastness of the ocean. 
The inhabitants of many of these islands inspired 
our travellers with a dread which was well justified 
by the murder of Captain Cock, and some other 
tragical adventures. Many of the natives were can- 
nibals; others used poisoned arrows, and even con- 
cealed some venomous matter either in the food that 
they sold to the strangers, or in the w r ater that they 
procured for them out of their rivulets.* John Wil- 
liams, however, braved all these dangers. 



* Some of these tribes were cannibals even in their sports. 
One of the children pretended to be dead, and the others carried 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 287 

The missionaries were, nevertheless, compelled to 
keep well on their guard in the first interview with 
any savage tribe ; and they generally had with them, 
on board their vessel, one or two chiefs of some of 
the neighbouring isles, whom they had won over to 
their cause. The natives, seeing men of their own 
nation and colour, were inclined to disarm and to 
join more readily in a parley. They then exchanged 
a kind of peace-offering : the savages, on their part, 
brought the fruit of the bread-fruit tree, a piece of 
stuff, or some other present, to which was attached 
the sacred leaf of the cocoa-nut tree ; the strangers 
offered some trifles, which served as a sign of friend- 
ship. When this was done, the natives launched 
their canoes, and the vessel was soon surrounded by 
crowds of wild-looking and tatooed men, whose cries 
and gestures were anything but reassuring. The 
missionary woidd then explain the aim of his visit; 
and if his propositions were accepted, he landed, 
accompanied by one or two native schoolmasters 
whom he had brought with him. This was the way 
in which John Williams introduced himself into many 
islands ; and who can tell how far his conquests might 
have extended if they had not been cut short by his 
massacre in 1839 by the savages of Eromanga ? 



him about, chanting the f easting-song. Subsequently the savnges 
imagined, on seeing the missionaries eating meat, that the latter 
were eating one of their companions. They knew no other flesh, 
poor wretches, than the flesh of man. 



288 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Mr. W. Ellis, another missionary endowed with 
devoted courage and high powers of intellect, suc- 
ceeded him for some time in the South Seas; and 
he has been since followed by a whole army of evan- 
gelists. After such constantly-repeated efforts, is it 
not quite natural to ask, what alteration has been 
produced by the influence of England in the in- 
habitants of the Pacific Archipelago? In the first 
place, the reign of idolatry has been almost entirely 
swept away. All the poor gods, whose acquaintance 
we made in the Missionary Museum in London, have 
met with, for the most part, rather humiliating ends. 
Some have been kicked to pieces by the savages 
themselves, some were thrown into the water with a 
stone round their necks, others were burnt to make 
a fire for cooking. But, after all, did they not de- 
serve their fate ? Even the tribes who were not 
actually cannibals had idols to which they offered 
up human sacrifices. The old superstitions, how- 
ever, did not offer any very strong resistance, ex- 
cept in certain cases, where the chiefs had a per- 
sonal interest in keeping up a form of worship which 
conferred upon them divine honours. The rude 
temples, the wooden statues, in fact all the hideous 
symbols of an unintelligible theology, gave way be- 
fore the Gospel, as the Polynesian forests fall before 
the might of a southern hurricane. It cannot be de- 
nied, though, that the savages sometimes formed a 
curious idea of the religion of the English. One of 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 289 

the natives of Raratonga, seeing a missionary walk- 
ing about with Ins Bible in his hand, cried out, 
" Look at this man's god, and see what a strange 
god it is ! He carries it about in his pocket, whilst 
ours are set up at the Marae"* It would be a 
difficult matter to separate from the progress of 
Christianity those advantages which were afforded 
the missionaries by the benefits of civilisation. The 
savages, in the habit of referring everything to some 
supernatural principle, could at first see nothing 
more in the God of the English than a god more 
powerful and perhaps less mischievous than their 
own, since he had taught them to wear shoes, to 
clothe themselves, and to make all kinds of in- 
genious utensils. 

At an epoch like the present, when the course 
of study seems attracted towards the circumstances 
attending the origin of Christianity, it would be, 
perhaps, curious to endeavour to trace out a source 
of analogy in the present state of Foreign Missions. 
"We can, for one thing, see in them how legends 
came to be originated. The missionaries were driven 
away from an island whither they had come to preach 
the Gospel, and were plundered by the natives. A 
short time after their departure, an epidemic broke 
out which affected both old men and children. The 
savages, attributing tins calamity to the vengeance 



* Temple of the Polynesian gods. 



290 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

of the strangers' God, collected all the things which 
they had robbed them of, and threw them down in 
a cavern. They then made a solemn vow. " If," 
they cried, " the God of the strangers would only 
suspend the execution of His decree, and bring back 
His worshippers to our coasts, we will receive them 
as hospitably as we can, and will share with them 
our food." If these missionaries returned, the whole 
country was from henceforth open to their influence. 
On another occasion, the only daughter of the chief 
of one of the tribes was dangerously ill. Notice was 
given to the priests, who then ceased not to offer 
sacrifices and invoke their idols, both day and night. 
The child died ; and the father, angry with Ins un- 
grateful gods, sent his own son to set fire to the 
temple. The good missionaries might be, perhaps, 
a little tempted to look upon facts like these in the 
light of miracles ; more modest, however, they are 
content with tracing out in them the over-ruling 
hand of Providence. 

If I am not much mistaken, if these inhabitants 
of the islands of the ocean ever find chroniclers, there 
will be a shade of the marvellous necessarily mixed 
up with the history of the first introduction of Chris- 
tianity to their shores. A savage king, who had 
been for a long time very unfortunate in war, ended 
by attributing his defeats to the impotence of his 
local divinities. He invoked the aid, under certain 
conditions, of the Christians' God, and obtained the 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 291 

victory. In reading this missionary narrative, who 
would not carry back his thoughts to Clovis and 
the battle of Tolbiac ? It is also interesting: to follow 
out the traces of their old superstitions in the natives 
who have been converted to Christianity. An uncle 
of the kino- of Raratonga raised an altar to Jehovah 
and Jesus Christ, which was soon visited by a mul- 
titude of sick persons ; and as the cures were said to 
be almost certain, this new Marae met with great 
success. English Christianity, in all its unbending 
principles, was so much opposed to the general ideas 
of these tribes, that one of two things was necessary 
— either that the spirit of the Gospel should modify 
the routine of their habits, or that the force of their 
manners and customs should effect some alteration in 
the spirit, or at least the letter, of the Bible. It has 
generally been the case that both results have been 
produced to some extent. 

The whole system of religious propagandism is 
much based on what is called native agency, that is, 
savages instructing savages. No sooner have the 
English missionaries won over one of these islanders, 
than they begin to make use of him in converting 
others. As he speaks naturally the language of the 
country, and of course is well acquainted with the 
character of the individuals of his own race, he is 
able to exercise over them a much more powerful 
influence than a foreigner could do. Some of these 
tawny or black-skinned agents very often lead most 



292 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

adventurous lives amid these seas, so fertile in event- 
ful travel. One of them, named Elekana, was en- 
deavouring with eight companions to cross over from 
one island to another, when the sail of their vessel 
was blown away by a gust of wind. The unfortunate 
men saw the land vanishing from their sight, and at 
last found themselves in the midst of a waste of water, 
the waves of which rose every instant, as if to swallow 
them up. After having been exposed for eight weeks 
to all the brunt of the ocean, the canoe which carried 
them was thrown upon the reefs of an island situate 
about 300 or 400 miles from the place where they 
had reckoned to land. Elekana and three of his 
companions who had survived the calamity were well 
received by the islanders, who were idolators. In 
order to recompense them for their hospitality, Ele- 
kana opened a school ; and after some time, having 
found a vessel which was sailing for Samoa, he came 
across to announce to the missionaries all that had 
taken place. He stated his want of Bibles and fellow- 
labourers to extend the work which he had begun. 
Thanks to this occurrence, the Church of England 
has latterly gained over three new islands in latitudes 
almost unknown to navigators. 

One of the most wonderful things to my mind in 
these Protestant missions is, how, being founded, as 
it were, upon a book, they have first of all necessarily 
provided for the instruction of the savages. When 
the first missionaries landed in the archipelago of the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 293 

South Seas, they found there a language as unculti- 
vated as the mountains of these virgin isles. The 
inhabitants were entirely ignorant of the use even 
of the letters of the alphabet. The small share of 
literature that they nowadays possess has come to 
them entirely from foreigners, who have reconsti- 
tuted for them their language, their traditions, and 
their ideas, under a written form. The Bible has 
been translated into, and printed in, fourteen dialects 
in succession ; but in order that it may be rendered 
accessible to all, they take great pains in educating 
schoolmasters among the aborigines. These teachers 
are chosen out of all classes of the population ; thus, 
the king of the Friendly Islands filled at the same 
time the posts of preacher and schoolmaster. There 
has been, besides, a system established of Normal 
Schools, by the help of which the missionaries have 
succeeded in developing a plan of mutual instruction 
of the people. The London Missionary Society alone 
maintains in the South Seas 372 establishments, re- 
ceiving 21,103 pupils. At first, a letter or written 
message caused the greatest astonishment among the 
islanders. " How can that thing speak?" they would 
ask ; " it has no mouth." At the present time, many 
of the native schoolmasters are able to express their 
ideas in writing with the greatest freedom, in letters 
addressed to the missionaries. Books are constantly 
printed on these islands ; and the composing, print- 
ing, and binding are all done by native hands, 



294 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN" ENGLAND. 

I cannot help dreading lest the artless instincts 
of the dark-skinned race may be in some measure 
sacrificed to the religions element; and in the re- 
ligions professions of those natives who have been 
converted to Christianity, I think the inoculation of 
European ideas is too evident. The dictation of a 
strange and unwonted routine to a youthful race is 
not the way to increase its energy, but rather, as I 
think, to doom it to a second childhood. The mis- 
sionaries, however, assure us that they have done all 
in their power to preserve the national traditions, 
legends, and poetry. I wish with all my heart that 
this may have been the case ; but still, is it not a 
fact that they have suppressed all the dances and 
games in the Pacific isles, from a dread that some 
of the relics of idolatry may remain hidden under 
these old customs? They ought to take care that 
they do not render the life of these peoples rather 
too joyless, and altogether extinguish the germs of 
their national individuality. 

One of the most material services which the 
English missionaries have rendered to the Polynesian 
savages has been the introduction among them of 
certain domestic animals. The islands of the South 
Seas abound in natural beauties; they have been 
compared to verdant flower-gardens shut in by the 
ocean. Some, of volcanic origin, rise boldly towards 
the sky in groups of mountain peaks ; others, formed 
by banks of coral and madrepores, are only raised 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 295 

some few feet above the level of the sea, and only 
make themselves known to the voyager by the trees 
which grow on their surface. In all of them, how- 
ever, the animal kingdom was extremely deficient; 
some of them were occupied by little else than ser- 
pents, vampire-bats, and rats. It is true that the 
latter were there in swarms. At first the missionaries 
could not sit down to table without having two or three 
persons engaged in protecting the eatables against 
these marauders. An Englishwoman having one night 
left her shoes by the side of the bed, could not find 
them at daylight next morning. This was unbear- 
able ; so, to make war upon these enemies, a cat was 
introduced into one of the islands. This animal caused 
the greatest terror among the inhabitants, and played 
them several tricks, which gave rise to stories pretty 
well tinged with the marvellous. Besides, what good 
was it to destroy all the rats without providing some- 
thing else to take their place ? for the fact was, that 
the islanders lived on them. Their flesh was con- 
sidered exquisite, and " as good as a rat" was a fa- 
vourite proverb among the savages to express one of 
the finer shades of epicurism. When the English 
missionaries for the first time imported two pigs into 
Mangaia, the natives, who had never before set eyes 
on anything of the sort, raised cries of astonishment. 
The chief put on his best clothes and all the insignia 
of his rank, and then sent them away to pay court 
to his gods. At the present day, these animals are 



296 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

very common in all the islands of the archipelago ; 
being endowed with a rapacious appetite, they have 
almost destroyed the rats, — affording to man their 
own flesh as a good exchange. The goat also, at its 
first introduction, had the honour of exciting much 
wonder among the natives; they took it for some 
wonderful bird, with two great teeth on its head. 
This long-haired bird has wonderfully increased and 
multiplied in the mountains of these islands, where 
nature before showed herself so niggardly in living 
forms. The ass and the horse, the latter nicknamed 
by the Polynesians "the great man-carrying pig," 
made their way in turn into these regions, whither 
they were at length followed by the larger horned 
cattle generally. 

This good work of acclimatisation has, of course, 
much enriched the provision of food for the inha- 
bitants ; at first the missionaries and their families 
were obliged to be content with pork as their only 
meat. Ten years elapsed after the arrival of John 
Williams among the Polynesian isles before he was 
able to have an ox slaughtered. It was made quite 
a great festival ; and he invited to it several of his 
associates, who even crossed over the sea to take a 
part in the banquet. But 0, how great was their 
bewilderment when they found that not one of their 
party could endure either the smell or the taste of 
tliis eminently English dainty ! One of the mission- 
aries' wives went so far as to burst into tears, and 



EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 297 

cried out, " Are we become such barbarians !" But 
as regards the savages of Polynesia, it was not only 
the nature of their food, but the whole tenor of their 
manners and customs, which were modified by the 
transition from hunting and fishing to a pastoral life. 
Before the arrival of the English, the natives of 
Polynesia had not so much as a word in their lan- 
guage to represent the idea of domestic comfort. 
There is, however, a great change nowadays, if we 
are to put faith in the correspondence of the mis- 
sionaries.* The low huts covered over with leaves 
have given place to pleasant cottages. The improve- 
ment and embellishment of the dwelling is a sure 
means to elevate the character of the inhabitant; 
and thus it is that in some of their schools they teach 
their pupils the first principles of the art of building. 
One now often meets with, under the roofs shaded 
by the banana-tree, not only domestic utensils, but 
even sofas and other articles of luxury, f European 



* Every missionary keeps up a constant correspondence with 
his Society in London. These records are very interesting to refer 
to ; for what travellers' stories can he compared to them ? The 
missionaries, of course, are not all savans ; and it often happens 
that they are mistaken in many things, — their observations in 
geology, ethnology, and natural history are often to some extent 
vague and inexact ; but, at all events, they must be better ac- 
quainted than any one else with the mind and the manners of the 
population among whom they live. 

f No race is altogether indifferent to comfort. John "Williams 
was in his vessel on one occasion, when his cabin was invaded, 
and even his couch was beset, with a swarm of female savages. 



298 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

fashions also exercise a considerable influence over 
the opinions of the natives. The Englishwomen teach 
the Polynesian girls to use the needle and to make 
bonnets — rather a powerful attraction for female 
coquetry. Some of the heathens of the softer, if not 
the fairer, sex are even willing to be made Christians 
in order to be better clad. But I think it is a ques- 
tion if these bonnets and dresses can add much to 
the charms of Malays and negresses ; do they not 
rather turn them into mere caricatures ? Every type 
of humanity has its own peculiar style of toilette 
dictated to it by nature. The woman of Polynesia, 
in all the wild luxuriance of savage fancy, — her head 
entwined with garlands of green leaves and flowers, 
her shoulders covered with blue pearls and red berries, 
and a rush-woven mat girt round her waist, — comes 
much nearer, I think, to the beau ideal of her race 
than if she were awkwardly disguised as a lady. 

The missionaries and the savages themselves, I 
must say, do not look upon it in this light. In 
these islands the costume is the distinguishing mark 
of the faith, and the fashions of civilisation have a 
decided advantage over the others. The love of finery 
has at least this advantage, that it develops the inge- 



They would have liked to have lain down on the soft bed ; but as 
the missionary feared for the whiteness of his sheets if they came 
in contact with their oily skins, they were compelled to be content 
with rubbing their cheeks, one after the other, against the down 

pillows. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 21)9 

nuity of their fingers, and makes another bond of 
union with the foreigners ; it is to the latter also that 
the Polynesian women owe the advantage of being 
able to see their own faces in a mirror, instead of 
looking down into a brook, as they used to do 
before. 

The force of example, and the always increasing 
necessity for comfort, has taken the lead in another 
way in the introduction of many useful arts. The 
landscape, once darkened by the shade of the forest, 
and wild with its romantic desert beauties, has now 
more or less taken the character of a garden, where 
they cultivate the yarn, the sugar-cane, cotton, and 
tobacco. With us, goods are bought with money; 
but in these youthful communities, goods — I mean, of 
course, the produce of the earth — are used to buy 
money. The government, which was formerly a 
debased and cruel form of despotism, has now been 
subjected to restraining laws ; and the rights of per- 
sons and property are based, at the present day, on in- 
violable charters. Magistrates duly administer justice, 
and even the institution of trial by jury has been in- 
troduced into the South Seas. The cruel warfare be- 
tween tribe and tribe, which once used to steep these 
isles in bloodshed, has now ceased to decimate the 
population ; and infanticide, which had almost passed 
into a custom, has entirely disappeared.* The mis- 

* The last pulpit which Mr. "W. Ellis used for preaching the 
Gospel from in the Society Islands before he left Polynesia is sur- 



300 EELIGrlOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

sionaries have taken much pains to elevate the con- 
dition of the women. As the wife was generally 
bought when she was married, she was both the slave 
and the property of the man ; she was also considered 
an object of so great impurity, that she was never 
allowed to cross the boundary of the court of their 
temples; and she was looked upon as more odious 
to their gods than the most unclean animals. Li 
the Feejee Islands, the wives of their chiefs were 
strangled at the funerals of the latter, under the 
pretext that they might prove of use to them hus- 
bands in another world. By abolishing polygamy. 
and reconstituting the civil institutions, English Pro- 
testantism has been the means of placing family rela- 
tions among the natives on a completely new basis. 

But what is the course of missionary life in these 
countries, just emerging, as they are, from a savage 
state ? Thanks to the natural richness of the climate, 
and their own industry, they generally find the 
means of making a pretty comfortable home of their 
own. Their principle is, that they do not come 
there to make barbarians of themselves, but to civi- 
lise the barbarous natives. And yet it is necessary 
at first that the missionary should have in him a 



rounded with ancient war-lances. Many of their arms and war- 
like instruments have been converted into agricultural implements. 
In less than one century the Sandwich Islands have emerged from 
all the gloom of barbarism, and now even enjoy the benefits of a 
constitutional government. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 301 

little of the inventive genius of a Robinson Crusoe ; 
and if lie wishes for a more commodious and refined 
house than the rest, he is generally obliged to build 
it for himself. The natives, it is true enough, will 
offer him their services ; but he must be the architect, 
and must direct their work. How astonished were 
the savages the first time that they saw stones burnt 
to make lime ! By mixing red ochre with powder 
made from the madrepores washed up by the waves, 
they get a pretty salmon- colour, which gives to the 
walls a very pleasing aspect. If I may believe the 
sketches made by the missionaries themselves, which 
are preserved in London, some of their dwellings 
have no inconsiderable appearance of elegance. Their 
gardens are well looked after, and the banyan, 
bread-fruit, and cocoa-nut trees which surround 
them spread over them all the richness of a tropical 
foliage. The question then is as to furnishing the 
interior of the house : it is not the raw material 
that is wanting, — rosewood and other costly pro- 
ducts of the forest can be had for the trouble 
of cutting down ; but the missionary should be 
able to use the turning-lathe, and must be a bit of a 
cabinet-maker, if he wishes to turn these gifts of 
nature to proper advantage. The greater part of 
them have had some little practice in manual occu- 
pations, and driven by necessity, which our neigh- 
bours call "the mother of invention," they generally 
manage to triumph over the preliminary obstacles. 



802 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

As they are the pioneers of civilisation, the most 
simple processes are always the best ; and they de- 
rive the first principles of their workmanship from 
experience nrach more than from books. 

Their wives also are of the very greatest assistance 
in all that concerns domestic comfort ; they exercise, 
both inside the honse and ont of it, an influence so 
full of sympathy and kindness that it cannot fail to 
contribute much to the success of English missions. 
Better able than the male missionaries to get ac- 
quainted with the women of the country and to visit 
their sick children, they are easily able to win over 
their hearts by the services which they render them. 
The savages themselves are very readily able to 
associate the idea of a female companionship with 
the work of an evangelist. When some Catholic 
missionaries arrived among the Polynesian islands, 
accompanied by then- Sisters of Charity, the natives 
welcomed them as the wives of the priests ; and this 
idea could never be driven out of their imaginations. 
Few persons, I think, could fail of admiring the de- 
votion of these Englishwomen, who give themselves 
up to live far removed from all the advantages which 
society can afford. Almost alone, amidst men of 
another colour, speaking another language and ha- 
bituated to strange customs, how can they reflect on 
their position without horror if their husbands should 
happen to die and leave them in these barbarous 
countries ? They are constantly in the habit of accom- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN EXGLAXD. 303 

partying the missionary in his journeys, and with the 
rest of his family courageously share his clangers. 

Sometimes, even, reliance is placed on the weaker 
sex to tame down the wild instincts of the savages ; 
but the kind of affection which they inspire in the 
natives has occasionally proved a source of embar- 
rassment. The fact is, the savages get too fond of 
them, and the missionaries' wives have several times 
had to contend with that gift of pleasing which seems 
so peculiarly to belong to European ladies. On one 
occasion John Williams was in sight of the Island of 
Aitutaki, on board a vessel from which he was par- 
leying with the natives, when the attention of the 
latter was drawn to the son of the missionary, a 
pretty little boy of four years old, who was on board 
the ship. It was the first white child that they had 
ever seen, and his appearance caused so much enthu- 
siasm, that they contended who should first have the 
honour of rubbing noses with the youthful European.* 
The savages were full of pity at the lot of so delicate 
a being, exposed to all the violence of the tempestuous 
ocean ; and they urgently entreated that he would 
think fit to give the child up to them. " What would 
you do with him ?" they were asked by the father, 
rather alarmed, for he was afraid that the inhabitants 
of the island were cannibals. The chief replied, in the 



* It is the mode of salutation which corresponds with the Eng- 
lish shake of the hand. 



304 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

name of the whole party, that they would take the 
greatest care of him, and that, in fact, their intention 
was to make him their king. This brilliant offer, 
however, was no great temptation to the ambition of 
the parents ; and as the cries and gestures of the 
savages assumed rather a threatening character, the 
mother carried off the child in her arms to the inte- 
rior of the cabin. The children of the missionaries 
who are brought up among the savages are dis- 
tinguished by a peculiar turn of mind, and get the 
habit of thinking in the language of the country. 
One of them, having lost a little brother, who had 
died of one of the disorders so common in these un- 
healthy countries, said to his father, " Don't plant 
him, I entreat you ; he is too pretty." To put any- 
thing in the ground, according to the native idea, 
was to plant it. 

Even when the missionary does get established 
and comfortably settled in the house built with his 
own hands, he very often has hurricanes to deal 
with. The tempests brewing up in the vast extent 
of the South Seas come suddenly and break over 
these islands ; the lightning flashes fiercely, and 
even sets fire to the forests covering the lofty moun- 
tains. The rush of the wind makes everything 
tremble, and the giants of vegetation are scattered 
like wisps of straw. A disaster like this fell in 1865 
on the Island of Aitutaki ; seven thousand cocoa-nut 
trees in full bearing were laid flat upon the ground 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 305 

in one night; the supply of bread-fruit trees, the 
main source of food for the native families, was en- 
tirely destroyed ; and there was not a single house 
nor place of worship left standing in the whole 
island. Besides this, an inundation of the sea, which 
rose about midnight to a most unusual height, swept 
over all the cultivated grounds. Many of the inha- 
bitants rolled mats round their wives and children, to 
prevent their being torn one from the other and blown 
away by the violence of the squalls. Mr, Roll the mis- 
sionary, and his family, took refuge behind the re- 
mains of a wall, all that was left of the best house 
in the island. Who cannot fancy the fearful state of 
consternation into which a calamity like this would 
plunge the poor islanders? The rising sun lighted 
up a horrible scene of ruin. But yet, so great was 
the love of these formerly savage people for those who 
had been the means of bringing to them the blessings 
of civilisation, that they wished, first of all, to build 
up again the house belonging to the English mis- 
sionary. It was in vain that he represented to them 
that they themselves were the chief victims, and that 
they ought to look first to repairing their own mis- 
fortunes ; they only persisted the more, and indeed 
commenced the work immediately. " Without having 
first done this," they naively assured him, " they 
never could have found courage to begin amending 
their own disasters." 

Christian missionaries have many obstacles to con- 

x 



30G KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

tend with ; but one of their chief drawbacks at present 
in the South Seas is the trouble given them by men 
of their own colour, and professing at least the same 
religion. Two or three years ago some Peruvian vessels 
made their appearance in these waters, and carried 
off, either by fraud or violence, a great number of 
the inhabitants of some of the islands. These slavers 
burnt the houses, destroyed the canoes, and laid vio- 
lent hands on men, women, and children, whom they 
carried 'off into slavery. In some localities they 
had recourse to a singular stratagem. The report 
was spread about that they had a missionary on 
board one of their vessels, and the artless islanders 
rushed down to the shore to see him. One of the 
sailors, dressed in black, was able to act the part of 
the sacred personage well enough to induce them to 
come on board, when, just as they least expected 
it, sail was set, and the ship went off with its prey. 
These men-stealers inspired such horror in the inha- 
bitants, that for several months the appearance of a 
strange vessel on the coast was an object of alarm 
in all quarters. One of the slave-ships was at last 
caught by the natives of Papa, who placed it in the 
hands of the French authorities at Otahiti. Measures 
were taken in another quarter to compel the Peruvian 
government to prevent these acts of spoliation ; and 
by way of reparation they sent back 368 natives 
belonging to various islands. The vessel they were 
in was nothing but a floating prison. They had 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 307 

hardly left port when the small-pox and dysentery 
broke out ; and before they reached Eapa 344 dead 
bodies had been thrown into the sea. Those who sur- 
vived were landed by force on the coast, in spite of 
the just objections of the inhabitants, who were, of 
course, alarmed at receiving them back in such a 
state. It ended, in fact, in their sowing the seeds of 
an epidemic which carried off a fourth of the popu- 
lation. Poor Rapa ! she was certainly to be pitied ; 
they carried off her children, and, in return, brought 
her back a pestilence. 

What are the advantages which Great Britain 
has derived from her South Sea missions ? In the 
first place, she has made for herself there both allies 
and friends. At first, one of the greatest obstacles to 
the spread of the Gospel was a fear, on the part of 
the natives, that the missionaries had a design on 
their territory. The black and copper-coloured races 
had been too much accustomed to look upon the 
Christian missionary as only the advanced guard of 
an army of invasion. England, already overdone 
with colonies, has acted with policy and wisdom in 
refraining from the annexation of any of these 
islands to her vast empire ; and by doing this she 
has gained the good opinion of the island chiefs. 
Throughout this vast ocean desert, she can now 
find convenient points for the re-victualling of her 
fleets, and refitting stations for her whalers, as well 
as markets which afford a vent for the products 



308 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

of her manufactories. A nation can increase its 
power without extending its conquests, by thus ele- 
vating foreign races to a higher stage in the scale 
of social life. 



CHAPTER XII. 

A female missionary enthusiast — William Moister — Sally the 
African nursemaid — Departure for Africa — General appear- 
ance of the coast — The dead man's house — Journey through 
the desert — Waggons drawn hy oxen — Travelling incidents 
and impressions — A black sovereign — Results of his sneeze — 
Have Englishwomen any finger-nails ? — Local fevers — Want 
of water — Opinions of the Negroes as to Christianity — Robert 
Moffat — Slavery and the slave-trade — A few words from 
Livingstone — Landing of a cargo of slaves rescued by Eng- 
lish sailors — Opinions of the missionaries as to Negroes — The 
Madagascar mission — Its martyrs — Ranavahona the blood- 
thirsty — Radama II. and the Rev. W. Ellis — Why the present 
Queen of Madagascar defends and preserves her idols. 

Africa is another part of the world to which the 
friendly solicitude of the English has been long di- 
rected. Some years back I was visiting Cromer, 
a little town in Norfolk which is daily suffering 
from the encroachments of the sea. A number of 
placards announced a missionary meeting, which I 
had the pleasure of attending. It took place in a 
small chapel, in which was erected a platform, on 
which a female with marked features made her ap- 
pearance, leading by the hand a young negress about 
seven or eight years old, whose startled eye some- 
what resembled that of a gazelle fresh caught in 
the desert. This female was, in fact, the missionary ; 
and the discourse which she addressed to her audi- 



310 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

ence, with an almost inspired air, was something as 
follows : 

" When I was quite a young girl, my brain 
was full of dreams about voyages and travels; and 
I seemed to myself as if I were called upon to en- 
lighten the women and children of the black race. 
My mind was quite unable to find rest, and this fixed 
idea rendered me unfit for any other occupation. I 
prayed to God, night and day, that He would fur- 
nish me with the means for realising the romance 
of my youth. Some missionaries, with whom I had 
made acquaintance, promised that they would send 
me away into some of the colonies as soon as there 
was any position vacant. I was still waiting, but 
with impatience, when a distant relative chanced to 
die, and left me a legacy of about 5001. It seemed 
to me to be enough for the expenses of my voyage 
and the full execution of my project ; so I embarked 
in a vessel which was bound for the west coast of 
Africa. We were then just in the month of August, 
and everything in nature seemed to smile on my 
undertaking. Seated on a coil of rope on deck, I 
used to look at the waves and think that I was 
launched alone on the ocean of life, — yes, quite alone ; 
but I felt full confidence in my own powers and in 
the protection of Heaven. There happened to be on 
board a minister — a Mr. C. — and his family, who were 
going out as emigrants to the same coast as myself, 
and offered to take me under their protection. After 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 311 

a long and tedious voyage, we at last arrived at 
Sierra Leone ; and Mr. C. took me to the honse of 
a missionary resident there, who was very willing 
to show us hospitality. I entertained him with the 
account of all the good which I wished to do to the 
poor negroes ; he smiled a little at my enthusiasm, 
and made known to me many an obstacle and many 
a danger which I had not foreseen in the path I 
was about to tread. After hearing what he said, 
1 answered that God fits the shoulder to the burden, 
and my mind being fully made up, I, without fear, 
betook myself into the desert. As soon as I was 
able to speak the language of the country a little, 
I opened a school; — it was a little wooden house, 
and I laid down some mats on the ground for the 
children to sit on, instead of benches. My first 
lesson consisted in a distribution of glass beads, and 
some other little trifles, of which I taught the chil- 
dren the names and the uses ; it was amusing to 
see them dance about and array themselves in my 
presents with all kinds of cries and savage gestures. 
My school prospered, and I soon had from twenty 
to thirty pupils blacker than any crows. My time 
was passing away very happily, for I felt conscious 
of being useful, when I made the acquaintance of 
a native family who had been converted to our re- 
ligion. The wife, who was beautiful for a negress, 
fell ill, and finally died in my arms, recommending 
in her last words her child to my care. That child 



312 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

is the young girl whom you now have before you. 
The father, however, would not give his consent to 
my taking her away from his hut ; and he sent for 
another woman to take charge of her ; but one day 
he returned from the forest with a wound in his 
leg, and was carried off some days after by a bad 
fever. I now called to mind the promise which I 
had made to the child's mother; and seeing that 
the poor little thing was ill-treated, I made up my 
mind to take her away from her nurse, who was 
a heathen. It then became quite necessary for me 
to go away, and to hide during the day-time, travel- 
ling on foot through the wilderness by night ; for 
my carrying off the child had excited the anger of 
the blacks. In this way I reached the nearest vil- 
lage, where I fell ill with fatigue. In the mean 
time a war broke out among the tribes ; the houses 
were burned down, and we were all compelled to 
seek safety in flight. At night I was obliged to lie 
down in a thicket, where I was exposed to the 
attacks of wild beasts and the inclemency of the 
weather. I had named the child Zelika, and she 
always called me mother ; the idea that I had brought 
her up as a Christian, and that I had thus fulfilled 
a duty which was cast upon me, kept up my courage 
amid all these trials, At last I managed to reach 
a missionary station or establishment; and by the 
interposition of the Society, I obtained the means 
of returning to England. Many of my fond hopes 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 313 

had been destroyed by time. I had won from idola- 
try but a very slender trophy; and yet I am again 
ready to make my way to those sun-scorched lands, 
if God will only grant me the opportunity." 

From the vehemence of her ideas it was easy to per- 
ceive that this female missionary belonged to rather 
an eccentric genus. In the ordinary way, though, 
things are managed in a much more simple manner. 
A young man has been educated by one of the Dis- 
senting denominations ; it may happen that he has 
shown some inclination for preaching the Gospel. 
In all the ardour of youth, the mirage of distant 
countries, and the rich harvests which faith may 
there gather in, pass through his brain like a vision 
of the Apocalypse. He makes known his feelings 
before a religious meeting in the district to which 
he belongs ; and he is sent to London to be examined 
by a committee of missionaries. He pursues his 
studies there for one or two years, in one of the 
institutions maintained by the denomination to which 
he belongs. A very trivial circumstance will some- 
times decide to what part of the world his destiny 
shall lead him. 

Mr. William Moister, one of the most remark- 
able among the Wesleyan missionaries, was thus 
waiting for his destination to be fixed, when, in 
1830, on a cold morning in October, a young black 
girl presented herself at the door of the old Mission 
House in Hatton Garden. She carried in her arms 



314 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

a white child of an unhealthy appearance; it was 
the child of the Eev. Richard Marshall, who had 
died, that very year, of malignant fever, near the 
River Gambia, in West Africa. Two days after 
the funeral, his wife embarked for England, taking 
with her her young child and an African girl named 
Sally, who was to take care of the little boy during 
the passage. On her arrival at Bristol, Mrs. Mar- 
shall found all her strength exhausted, and expired 
forty-eight hours after reaching her native shores. 
It was, therefore, a poor little orphan which the faith- 
ful negress came to bring to the Mission House : 
her love for the child seemed extreme, and hugging 
it in her black arms and bathing it with her tears, 
she talked enthusiastically about her country. This 
touching scene moved to tears some of the young 
candidates tor the mission-work. It now became 
necessary to appoint a successor to Mr. Marshall at 
the station of the Gambia; but, in consequence of 
the dreadful mortality which for some time past had 
struck down, one after the other, so many of the 
evangelists all along the west coast of Africa, the 
Committee had determined, for the future, only to 
send those who voluntarily offered their services. 
This incident determined the vocation of Mr. Moister. 
This district was the most unhealthy and the most 
dangerous that he could choose, but nevertheless it 
was thither that he determined to go. 

The place of his destination being fixed, the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 315 

young missionary receives his directions, and then 
generally gets married to some female, determined, 
like himself, to brave all the dangers and fatigues 
of a wandering life. Nothing now remains but to 
bid farewell to his family and his friends, and to 
get ready for his long voyage. Accompanied by her 
who is to share all his struggles, he sets sail in one 
of the Society's vessels. What greets them on their 
arrival ? To answer this question, let us group to- 
gether some of the details taken from their corre- 
spondence. First, the coast of Africa appears in 
all its savage magnificence ; the natives, who have 
heard beforehand of the arrival of the new mis- 
sionary, throw themselves into the water and swim 
round the boat which brings him to the shore. At 
the first glance everything seems grand to him, and 
everything is new ; nothing that he sees bears any 
resemblance to the scenery he has left. behind in 
pale England. Cocoa-nut trees swaying about in 
the breeze ; majestic palm-trees ; crowds of blacks — 
men, women, and half-clothed children; a dozen 
tongues at once jabbering their strange accents in 
his ears, not one word of which is intelligible to 
him, — such is the strange and yet exciting scene 
which meets him on his arrival. 

He is now conducted to his new residence, per- 
haps several miles away up the country ; it is a house 
protected by a verandah against the scorching rays 
of the sun, and standing detached in the midst of 



316 RELIGIOUS LIFE IE" ENGLAND. 

a collection of huts. This is from henceforth his 
home; and outside it has far from an unpleasant 
appearance. They enter the court-yard ; and at the 
foot of the stone steps leading into the ground-floor, 
a beautiful wild-flower, a sort of exotic jasmine, 
meets their eyes. " 0, this is a good omen I" cries 
the missionary's wife ; " this flower is here to bid 
us welcome." But still it is the absence of man 
which has enabled this little flower to grow on the 
door-step of the deserted house. The whole of the 
interior is pervaded with an aspect of mourning and 
terror ; this house is the house of a dead man, and 
it remains in exactly the same state in which it was 
left after the last sigh of the last occupier. The 
young household learn, from the silence of the place, 
the fate which they may themselves meet with, some 
day or other, in this fatal climate. The walls are 
re-plastered, the floors are cleaned, the windows are 
opened to let the life-giving air of nature blow into 
this tomb-like dwelling. 

Having first provided for the immediate require- 
ments of his domestic arrangements, the missionary 
sets joyfully to work. His labours consist in the 
superintendence of the school, at which about a hun- 
dred black children attend every day, and in preach- 
ing the word of God. Before long, however, these 
humble duties do not seem sufficient for his zeal ; he 
feels it necessary to extend the field of his mission, 
and to get at some of the neighbouring tribes, who 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 317 

live some way in the interior of the country. Will 
he take his wife with him, or will he leave her all 
alone, surrounded as she is by blacks ? More com- 
monly she accompanies him in his joumeyings. 

Travelling in West Afrioa is, to tell the truth, no 
such trifling matter. The best roads are mere paths 
through the forest and wilderness, through which the 
travellers advance in single file, each carrying a gun 
or a cutlass to defend themselves against wild beasts. 
Saddle-horses are sometimes used ; but in some dis- 
tricts these animals cannot exist very long, either 
from the quality of the grass, or from the effects of 
the climate ; the camel itself, though it may be said 
to be a denizen of the country, is not able, in the 
west, to stand against forced marches. Thus, the 
more general custom is to go through the desert in 
waggons drawn by oxen. 

These waggons are made long and narrow, and 
mounted on two pairs of wheels, and are, besides, 
covered with a large tilt resembling a tent, to protect 
the travellers against sun or rain. There are two 
immense chests, one of which serves as a seat for the 
driver, and the other, placed behind the waggon, is 
used to hold the provisions for food. Under the 
vehicle is hung a kind of basket, in which they put 
the cooking utensils, as well as the tools which are 
intended to repair any accidents which may happen 
on the road. The interior of this moving house is 
divided into two compartments, in one of which the 



318 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

missionary and his companion stay in the daytime, 
sleeping in the other at night. The wife naturally 
superintends all the domestic arrangements ; and if 
she have anything at all of a skilful hand, she confers 
on this nomadic household a degree of order and 
comfort which might be envied by many a family in 
a fixed habitation. In the daytime she may be seen 
comfortably seated, working at her needle ; whilst her 
husband superintends the men and the cattle, or, if all 
goes well, quietly gives himself up to reading. 

The heavy waggon is drawn by a team of oxen, 
which varies in number from twelve to eighteen, 
according to the circumstances of the journey ; these 
animals are almost always of the same colour and 
very like one another, and form a group fraught with 
energy and vigour. Three men are necessary to man- 
age a waggon, — the driver, conductor, and a helper 
who takes care of the beasts intended for food. When 
all the preparations for departure are concluded, the 
driver, seated on his box, cracks his immense whip, 
and the ponderous machine goes jolting along the 
rough and scarcely marked-out roads. They proceed 
at the average rate of about three miles an hour 
through grand and picturesque but rather gloomy 
scenery ; for Africa is, in some parts, a disagreeable 
country, and appears as if dried up by the sun. After 
three or four hours' travelling it is necessary to halt 
and unharness the panting bullocks ; some oasis in 
the wilderness is chosen for this purpose. The con- 



IlELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 319 

ductor then gives the word to the men, and the vehi- 
cle stops ; the beasts, freed from the yoke, immedi- 
ately make their way to the brook or pool, where 
they drink plentifully, and afterwards to the natural 
pasture lying round, where they crop the fresh grass. 
During all this time the men have collected pieces of 
dry wood and lighted a fire ; and the kettle, which 
plays so important a part in English domestic life, is 
suspended to a sort of tripod and commences its 
cheerful son£. The cloth is laid on the <jrass or on 
the smooth surface of a rock ; and, all preparations 
ended, each stands hat in hand while the mission- 
ary calls down the blessing of Heaven on their frugal 
meal. The men taking their tea, the sheep and goats 
lying about, the oxen browsing, — all this constitutes 
a curious and pleasing scene. * 

After a rest of one or two hours they continue 
their journey till nightfall ; and they spend the even- 
ing round their bivouac fire, in singing hymns, 
talking, and praying. They all go to rest in good 
time ; it not unfrequently happens that a storm may 
rage in the night, but their waggon-house is firmly 
closed up, and the serving-men, having taken the 
precaution of stretching the canvas of the tent down 
over the waggon- wheels, can sleep quietly under the 
vehicle, quite protected from the rain. The next day 
at daybreak the oxen are driven together; and after 
a modest breakfast they again take their way amid 
the solitudes. 



320 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

As a journey like this often lasts for months, it 
can be easily understood what preparations and pro- 
visions are requisite for it. Sometimes they hajypen 
in the course of their journey to kill an antelope, and 
thus, from the chance acquisitions of the chase, some 
little additions are made to the general stock of eat- 
ables. The greater part of the animals which they 
meet with are not, however, of any important assist- 
ance to them ; they see flocks of ostriches running by 
beating their wings, or troops of jackals which howl 
all night in the thickets. They must not always ex- 
pect to find level ground for their waggon to travel 
on ; every now and then they have to climb steep 
hills, or to get through dangerous passes, between 
rough and pointed rocks; everyone then gets out 
and proceeds on foot, only too happy if the pole or 
something else does not give way amid the rough 
shocks winch are given to the ponderous machine. 
Sometimes rivers suddenly bar then' path ; they are 
then obliged either to find out fords through the 
course of it, or to construct timber rafts to be pushed 
over by bold swimmers to the other bank of the river. 
After some time too it is most necessary that they 
should think about making bread and washing then' 
linen; these things naturally fall to the women's 
share, and they take advantage of a fine day and of 
meeting with some clear rivulet at the foot of a hill ; 
but in Africa the brightest days are often interrupted 
by storms. The thunder suddenly rolls, fallowed by 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 321 

a deluge of hail and rain, which forces those who are 
at work to take refuge in their waggon. An hour 
afterwards, perhaps, the sun shines again ; but the 
fire is put out, and the dough is soaked with the 
water from above, and it is necessary to begin the 
domestic preparations all over again. 

It often happens that they pass near some village, 
or at least a collection of huts ; what a capital oppor- 
tunity this is for a sermon, especially if it is a Sun- 
day ! With the help of the waggon and the tent, an 
open-air church is soon improvised, in which are 
ranged men, women, and children ; a young black 
shepherd happens to pass just at the moment with his 
flock of goats, and he is invited to stop there for a 
time, and to take a part in the divine service. 

After many an obstacle the missionary at last 
arrives at his journey's end, — the territory of the 
tribe with whom he wishes to contract relations of 
friendship. Some armed men rush suddenly from 
behind a thicket, and conduct him to the presence of 
the king ; there he needs all his eloquence and diplo- 
macy to plead successfully the cause of the Gospel. 
I must, however, mention how much he is helped by 
his wife, who is usually very sensible of the honour 
of an interview with a sovereign, even though he be 
a black one. She offers to his savage majesty a cup 
of coffee prepared with her own fair hands. As 
English ladies always wear gloves, even in the desert, 
the shap$ of their fingers is very often a subject of 



322 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

astonishment to the royal savage, and he asks how it 
is that white women have no finger-nails. The mis- 
sionary then proposes to address the people, and if 
his request be granted, a meeting is at once organ- 
ised for the occasion. The king himself makes his 
appearance in a car drawn by two hundred soldiers, 
and having been taken under a tree, receives the 
homage of his subjects. Everyone sits down on the 
grass, and it is then the missionary's part to deliver 
a discourse to his audience ; in general he is listened 
to with much attention, only that every time the king 
sneezes, they turn to him and compliment him. 

More or less content with these first beginnings, 
the missionary takes leave of the friendly tribe, and 
returns to his camp. The latter part of the journey 
is often the most wearisome ; the oxen are t^red out, 
and often fall, one after the other, and are not able 
to get up again. If the missionary and his wife have 
not yet been seasoned by an attack of the local fever, 
how very much are they now exposed to catch this 
disorder in these low -lying and scorching regions ! 
To guard against such casualties as these, they carry 
medicines with them ; but yet the waggon, which set 
off so cheerfully, is very often at its return little 
better than a travelling infirmary. 

But yet this sort of life must have its charms, for 
the missionaries' wives often speak of it with plea- 
sure in their letters : — " here," they say, " nature 
supplies the place of so much ;" — their dining-room 



KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 323 

is sometimes formed by a grove of orange-trees, 
under the shade of which stands a rough, wooden 
table surrounded with some seats. The great vexa- 
tion in Africa is the want of water ; and so the rain 
is greeted by the children with the most flattering 
epithets ;— they call it " good," " lovely," " kind," 
&c, and a crowd of negro children run out with 
vessels of all shapes to catch it in. The water-filter 
stands inside the house, and is guarded by the mis- 
sionary's wife almost like something sacred ; it is her 
duty to keep it filled with water, and see that no 
one empties it carelessly. The gardens, where they 
have a well to use and industrious arms to apply the 
water, look like islands of fruit and flowers in an 
ocean of sterility. 

English missionaries in no way partake of the 
American idea as to the absolute inferiority of the 
negroes ; on the contrary, they all bear witness to 
the good qualities of the Ethiopian race ; and when 
sometimes they are forced to blush, it is for the bad 
conduct of the white men, who traverse the country 
in pursuit of ivory and ostrich-feathers, who give the 
very worst examples to the black population. The 
coloured children in the schools show also a certain 
amount of facility in the acquirement of knowledge.* 



* Three negro youths who had been saved from slavery were 
lately brought to England by Mr. Eigby, formerly Consul at 
Zanzibar, and were placed in various institutions, where they 
were distinguished by their attainments : one of them was always 



324 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

Among the men who have done the most for the edu- 
cation of the black race, I must mention especially 
the venerable Robert Moffat, father-in-law of Living- 
stone, the great traveller, and also himself an able 
missionary. Upright and firm as a palm-tree in the 
desert, notwithstanding his great age ; all alone, the 
only foreigner in the midst of an almost barbarous 
country, he himself superintends a field of apostolic 
labour, in which he is much assisted, especially in 
the schools, by his daughter Jane. The great objec- 
tion made by those of the negro idolators who are 
unwilling to be converted to Christianity, is " that the 
religion of the white man is made for the white man, 
and the religion of £he black man for the blacks." 
There may very probably be a basis of physiological 
truth in this artless reasoning. Thus, some mission- 
aries of rather narrow views seek with' might and 
main to instil unintelligible dogmas into the black 
race ; others, however, who are more enlightened, 
are contented with endeavouring to implant in their 
minds the generous features of universal morality.* 



at the head of his class. We are, though, assured that at about 
the age of fourteen a critical epoch occurs in the faculties of the 
negro. I think the trifth is, that our European methods are not 
always adapted to the peculiar development of his intellect. 

* Dr. Colenso, at a meeting of the Geographical Society in 
London, declared that at least two centuries must elapse before 
the Zulus would be able to comprehend the theological subtleties 
of the Athanasian Creed. " And it is a good thing," he added ; 
" for between this and then, the Church of England will have had 
time to modify some of her doctrines." 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 325 

For many years the English missionaries had much 
more reason to complain of their own countrymen, 
the slaveholders, than of the negro idolators. With 
regard to the former, they found to their sorrow that 
their reign was put an end to in 1838 ; but in fact, 
slavery is yet very far from being really abolished on 
the coast of Africa. And how can it be abolished, 
when in the interior of this unfortunate country, where 
the history of the black race is written in characters 
of blood, chiefs sell their subjects, fathers sell their 
children, and friends sell friends ? This trade in hu- 
man flesh and blood is chiefly carried on by the Arabs, 
and the slave, bartered about from hand to hand, gets 
to be considered among these traders as a sort of cur- 
rent money. It not unfrequently happens that vessels 
engaged in the slave-trade are captured on the eastern 
coast, after furious engagements between the Arabs 
and the English sailors. The missionaries and their 
wives are usually present at the heart-rending scene 
of the disembarking of the slaves ; the sailors first 
bring on shore the little children of from three to six 
years old, and lay them on the sand with rough jokes, 
patting them on the head like so many little black 
lambs ; then come the young girls, some of whom 
have perhaps been wounded in the fight, the mothers 
with their nurslings, and at last the men, full of 
wonder that they should excite so much interest. A 
cargo of 350 negroes are sometimes crammed into a 
small confined vessel, in which all the food they get 



326 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

is a handful of boiled rice every day. The Arabs 
calculate, that on account of the dreadful mortality 
which usually prevails on board, only one negro in 
three will reach the destined port; but even this 
small proportion will nevertheless yield them a large 
pecuniary profit. 

The English missionaries are now reckoning much 
on the abolition of slavery in the Southern States of 
America, the result of the late war, under the idea 
that it will put a complete end to tins odious traffic. 
At all events, the efforts which they have made in 
Africa, with the view of mitigating the horrors of 
this system, ought to insure for both these men and 
their country the hearty thanks of the Ethiopian race. 
In 1865, at the meeting of the London Missionary 
Society, Dr. Livingstone related, that when the pub- 
lic whip (for there really is such an institution) was 
hard at work in the interior of the country, some of 
the unfortunate negroes who were being flogged cried 
out even under the lash : " for the English ! when 
will the English come?" 

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the 
attention of England was drawn to Madagascar ; the 
twenty-two states into which the island was divided 
had just fallen into the power of the Hovas, a vigorous 
and warlike race. In 1820, some men were sent 
out by a missionary society in London, who, though 
having received a liberal education, possessed some 
knowledge of the mechanical arts ; they were kindly 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 327 

received by the king, Radama L, who was too much 
of a god himself to yield up very readily his posi- 
tion to another deity,* but still was quite inclined to 
give countenance to the schools established by the 
strangers. In 1828 Radama died ; the legitimate 
heir to the crown was his son Rakotobe, a disciple 
of the missionaries, of whom they had the very best 
hopes, but in their plans they had not reckoned on 
the ambition of a woman. Ranavalona, one of the 
twelve sultanas of the late king, swore that she would 
obtain possession of the sceptre ; she caused Rakotobe 
to be assassinated, and set up a reign of terror 
against the Christians. " The bowels of the earth 
shall be dug up," she cried, " and the lakes shall be 
dredged with nets, before one single Christian shall 
escape the justice of the country." In fact she re- 
inaugurated an era of sanguinary persecution, and 
added to the long series of martyrs for the faith. 
The native Christians compared her to a black 
tigress, with but one white spot; this white spot 
was maternal affection ; she loved her son Rakoto- 
Radama, a young man of seventeen, who had 
secretly attended the religious assemblies of the 
Christian neophytes. , 



* During a storm, he amused himself by firing off his cannon ; 
and when the English Consul asked the reason for his making 
such a noise, " God up above," replied the king, "is speaking by 
means of thunder, and I by my cannon : we are answering one 
another." 



328 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

After a reign marked by persecutions and punish- 
ments, Eanavalona died in 1861. Eakoto had a rival 
who disputed with him the right to the throne; he 
caused the latter to be shut up in a fortress, and was 
proclaimed king under the title of Eadama II. The 
new sovereign recalled the English missionaries, who 
had been driven away from the island by the perse- 
cutions ; they soon returned, and one of their num- 
ber, the Rev. William Ellis, became the Mentor to 
this black Telemachus. The exiled Christians also 
returned ; the Bibles, which had been buried, again 
made their appearance out of the dust of the wilder- 
ness, and those who had been persecuted showed with 
pride the marks of the fetters that they had worn in 
the last reign. The character and conduct of the 
young king did not, however, at all answer to the 
opinion which the missionaries had formed of him, 
and after rather a short reign, he was deposed from 
the throne and put to death. 

At the present time the Christian religion is tole- 
rated in Madagascar, although the government itself 
is an idolatrous one. Mr. Pakenham, the English 
consul, has lately negotiated a treaty, by virtue of 
which, both his fellow-countrymen, and the native 
Christians, have a right to enjoy religious liberty. 
This promising state of things has reanimated the 
zeal of the Protestant missions, which now gain 
ground day by day ; but they have considerable ob- 
stacles to overcome in the political constitution of 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 329 

the country. The present Queen of Madagascar be- 
lieves that her prerogatives depend on the main- 
tenance of the old customs ; the idols consecrate her 
power. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

China opened to the English missionaries — How little we must 
believe in the intolerance of the Chinese — A mandarin's 
eulogium on the Gospel — Have the Chinese any religion ? — 
The small value they set upon their gods — Why they will 
not change them — Material prosperity of idolatry — Has it, 
on this account, more enduring vitality ? — Plan of action 
necessary to convince the Chinese — Why they preserve their 
religion without believing it — Effects of the appearance of 
Christianity in India — Colenso and the Hindoo controver- 
sialists — Decline of idolatry — A god at the bottom of a well 
— Influence of education on the decline of the national reli- 
gion — Associations of free-thinkers — Various prophecies 
announce a change of religion — Obstacles to the spread of 
Christianity-^The system of caste — Answers of the Hindoos 
to the Christian missionaries — Hindoo plans to appease a 
restless soul — Itinerant missionaries — Women of India, and 
their so-called seclusion — Mrs. Cooper — Stationary mission- 
aries — Mr. Joseph Higgins — A merry Christmas in the Bud- 
wail Valley — New system of universal writing — Services to 
civilisation rendered by missionaries. 

We have hitherto seen the moral influence of Eng- 
land engaged in a struggle with ignorant and artless 
races, compelled to acknowledge in Christianity all 
the features of a higher class of religion : the case is 
not at all the same when the missionaries have to 
deal with nations already possessing, not only a 
system of philosophy and divinity, but also sacred 
books. Those peoples which had only gods of wood, 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 331 

gave them up without much resistance into the hands 
of their foreign instructors ; but how much more 
stubbornly do men defend spiritual idols ! This is 
exactly what has taken place in the Celestial Empire. 
The English missions, to which, since 1807, a 
path has been opened out in China by the learned 
studies of Dr. Morrison, began their labours in 1845, 
when an imperial decree declared that the Christian 
religion was to be tolerated in the Celestial Empire. 
The field for proselytism was still very much limited 
by the laws of the country. For some time the 
insurrection which threatened the government was 
reckoned on as likely to throw down certain barriers, 
and to favour to some extent the views of the pro- 
pagators of the Bible. It seemed, in fact, as if a 
certain spiritualist element animated the fury of these 
new sectarians. They were soon, however, com- 
pelled to forego these illusions ; the capture of Nankin 
terminated the war between the imperialists and 
the insurgents, without the latter being in any way 
attracted to Christianity. The return of many thou- 
sands of fugitives to their homes, the resumption of 
all their industrial labours, in fine, all the advan- 
tages of peace, constituted a state of things very 
propitious for the work of Protestant missions. The 
treaty, too, that was concluded by Lord Elgin, 
guaranteed to the missionaries all the protection that 
the authority of the chief of the state was able to 
afford them. Upon this the various London societies 



332 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

organised a system of colportage of the Bible, and of 
itinerant preaching. 

These Gospel-bearing travellers made their way 
alone, or almost alone, into the midst . of an un- 
explored country, flourishing towns, and markets, 
to which flowed all the productions of commerce. 
Others established themselves in the large cities, 
where they opened hospitals and schools. At Nan- 
kin, for instance, they hope to gain over the souls of 
the Chinese by healing the maladies of their bodies. 
The female school presents, during the fine season of 
the year, one of the most agreeable of scenes : each 
of the proselytes wears an aster in the knot of black 
hair which crowns the top of their heads, and pots of 
the same flower ornament the whole room. Who 
then can talk of the intolerance of the Chinese? 
Evidently this is not the rock that they will split on ; 
at the present time the English missionaries find 
friends even among the mandarins. One of the 
latter, induced merely by a letter of recommendation, 
had a table covered with a piece of red cloth placed 
in his courtyard, and himself presented the Christian 
orator to a numerous audience, telling them that this 
stranger had come from afar to talk to them about 
his religion, and that he had invited him to address 
them. But notwithstanding all this, was this man 
any the more disposed to abandon the religion of 
his country ? No, indeed. Christianity meets with 
something of the same kind of opposition from the 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 333 

educated Chinese, that Jesus experienced from the 
pharisees, scribes, and priests in Judaea; they win 
over but few proselytes, except among the lower 
classes ; whilst the disciples of Confucius, the magis- 
trates and the scholars, receive them with the cold 
disdain of scepticism, or with a bantering approba- 
tion. " Very good doctrine," cried a mandarin, 
who had just heard the missionaries read to the 
people some pages of the Gospel; "truly excellent 
doctrine, exactly like that in our books !" 

The Celestial Empire presents the wonderful 
spectacle of a more or less atheistic people in the 
midst of a multiplicity of gods. Have the Chinese 
any religion at all?* Those who have lived any 
time in the country are very doubtful about it. At 
first sight their public worship seems to be one of the 
numerous forms of idolatry ; but much they care for 
their idols ! They hold these poor gods so cheaply, 
that occasionally they have been sold by the priest 
together with the temple they abode in.f The wor- 



* Near Bristol, at a charming place called Honeywood, lives 
the Englishman who is best acquainted with China. Sir John 
Francis Davis was Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain in 
the Celestial Empire, and Governor of the colony at Hong Kong. 
He has written one of the best books which there is about this 
country ; and yet, when I asked the baronet one day if the Chi- 
nese believed in the existence of a God, he was perplexed in 
answering me. 

f At Nankin, the new missionary hospital consists of a former 
temple, which was made over to them, images and all, by the 
Buddhist priest for a sum of money. 



334 ♦ EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

ship of their ancestors, and the genii of the earth, 
exercises, it is true, a more influential empire over 
their consciences, and groves of funereal trees con- 
secrate the memory of their dead. But the obstacles 
to the progress of Christianity do not He in this 
direction. These obstacles must be sought for in 
what Lamennais called, among us, indifferentism in 
the matter of religion. The Chinese certainly care 
but little for their divinities ; but they care still less 
for changing their religious books for the Gospel. 
" Our religion may very likely be false," they reply 
to the missionaries' persuasions ; "but at any rate, it 
is a custom of our country, and can be traced back 
to a remote antiquity. Our idols may be, as you 
say, mere fabrications of wood and clay, and our 
gods may be the phantoms of the dead ; but after 
all, what does it matter ? In religion, objective' ex- 
istence is of no great consequence, the subjective 
mode is the great thing. Why should we abandon 
the fictions of our country, trifling as they may be, 
for these foreign myths ? Blot out from your books 
the name of Jesus, or at least his title as Son of God, 
and then we will read them." In fact, the edu- 
cated Chinese are in the habit of seeking for their 
weapons from moral philosophy rather than from 
external and exploded ceremonies, when they wish to 
combat the dogmas of young Europe. But yet, let 
them not deceive themselves, their national worship 
has lost nothing of its old material splendour. What 



RELIGIOUS LIFE LN ENGLAND. • 335 

a mean figure the poor Methodist missionary makes 
amid the marble temples fall of gilded images, the 
rich monasteries, and the official priestly residences 
of China ! All this is certainly no guarantee at all of 
stability, and Roman paganism had never been so 
rich as just at the eve of its fall. 

If we may trust the opinion of the English mis- 
sionaries, the whole religious edifice of the Chinese is 
threatened with the same fate ; it is cracking on all 
sides, and we are verging upon a change, the results 
of which will extend over a third part of Asia. The 
opportunity is certainly a favourable one, and one 
can well understand the zealous efforts which our 
neighbours are bringing to bear in this new crusade 
of thought. Looking at their commerce and their 
diplomacy, without mentioning more noble motives, 
the English, above all others, must have the highest 
interest in implanting Christianity on the ruins of 
the Mongolian idolatry ; but how great are the diffi- 
culties in the way ! The number of reapers is in- 
deed few, though the harvest is so great. Can a 
handful of men, scarcely able to speak the language 
of the country, hope to triumph over the obstinacy 
and disdain of a race infatuated with their own 
merits ? Some enlightened missionaries acknowledge 
this themselves ; and they feel that to the philosophy 
of the Chinese it is necessary that philosophy should 
be opposed, to their literature some of the best speci- 
mens of our own, and to their pretended learning a 



336 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

more profound and more exact science. In order 
that this should be the case, it would be necessary 
that men of talent should immediately proceed to 
China, and that during a residence often years there, 
they should take every pains to acquire a competent 
knowledge of the language, and that they should 
then write treatises capable of convincing the edu- 
cated classes of the country. But where are we to 
find these young scholars ? 

In the absence of such agents as these, they en- 
deavour to win over, among the natives, those who 
have succeeded in passing the examinations which 
bring with them in China both honour and social 
distinction. The missionaries have attained their 
point with certain masters of arts, restless spirits, 
who have in their time played all kinds of parts, 
such as soothsayers, astrologers, and charlatans. As 
they are acquainted with the books of Confucius, 
they are better able than some of their countrymen 
to confute the arguments of his disciples. Can they, 
though, entertain a hope that, with such materials 
as these, they will obtain any influence on a com- 
munity of three hundred and ninety-six millions of 
souls? 

Is this nation, however, altogether wrong from 
its own point of view in rejecting the cup that is 
offered to it as a cure for all its evils? When I 
was visiting the museum of the London Missionary 
Society, I noticed a bottle of a curious shape, with a 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 337 

label attached to it, on which I read these words 
from the Gospel, which were written on it : " No 
man putteth new wine into old bottles ; else the new 
wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, 
and the bottles will be marred." This piece of advice 
appeared to me to be directly addressed to the Mon- 
golian race, and I was scarcely astonished that they 
had followed it by instinct, as it were, though quite 
ignorant of the letter of the Book. Because the in- 
flux of these new ideas would dissolve all their old 
social forms, China, with no other fanaticism than 
that of her own conservatism, and without faith in 
her gods, resists Avith all her force the invasion of 
Christian doctrines. If she were to accept the Gos- 
pel, she must change her manners, her institutions, 
and her usages — a long and painful labour, which 
ended in breaking up the Roman Empire. China, 
therefore, better loves to slumber on, wrapped up in 
her antiquity, and in the effeminate and apathetic 
fascination of her polytheistic fancies, as in a dream 
excited by the fumes of opium. 

India, too, is another Asiatic nation which Eng- 
land has an interest quite peculiar to herself in 
wishing to convert. Queen Victoria reckons more 
Mahometan subjects than pay allegiance to the Grand 
Turk, and she has more idolators under her sway 
than any sovereign on earth, no matter who, if we 
except the Emperor of China. Our neighbours are 
very well aware that no one has really conquered a 

z 



338 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

people until they have vanquished their gods ; the 
operations, therefore, of Protestant missions in India 
commenced with the present century. 

The appearance of Christianity had the effect at 
first of reanimating the zeal of the Hindoos for their 
own religion ; the richest and best-educated amongst 
them joined together in publishing some of their an- 
cient religious works, which had never before been 
printed, and the manuscripts of which were as rare 
as they were costly. These poetical annals, contain- 
ing the doctrines, rites, and ceremonies of their wor- 
ship, appeared in monthly parts, and met with sub- 
scribers in every town. As they wished to forbid 
these books to the curiosity of the missionaries, it 
was recommended to the Hindoos not to make them 
known to any one belonging to another religion. 
Fearing that these records of the national faith might 
not form a sufficient rampart against foreign ideas, 
they founded both newspapers and magazines, edited 
by natives, at Bombay and Poonah. All the Hindoo 
sects took part in this movement ; the Parsees, or 
fire-worshippers, who held a high rank in the coun- 
try, owing to their intelligence and their enterprising 
spirit, defended the system of Zoroaster in a monthly 
miscellany, and published the Zend-Avesta, with a 
commentary and notes in English. 

The religion of the Hindoos has now just arrived 
at that position in which paganism found itself when 
the school of Alexandria appeared ; it is seeking to 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 339 

purify itself and its dogmas, to go back to its sources, 
and to re-invigorate its powers by discussion. It is 
not content with merely defending itself, but it also 
attacks its enemies ; the Indian controversialists avail 
themselves of the works of Voltaire and other philo- 
sophers of the eighteenth century, as means for re- 
pulsing the doctrines of Revelation. There is scarcely 
a work of historical or religious exegesis published 
either in France or England that does not find its 
echo far across the seas, in the depths of Hindostan. 
The name of Bishop Colenso is just as well known 
in the bazaars of Benares as in the schools at Oxford. 
The English missionary thinks that he will have to 
contend with Buddha only, but every day he finds 
himself opposed by the Essays and Reviews, Michelet's 
Bible, and Kenan's Vie de Jesus. 

As for commonplace idolatry, it loses ground 
every day. In vain are the walls of certain towns, 
whose names recall some of the divinities of the Hin- 
doo pantheon, decorated from house to house with 
the legends of the Brahminical mythology painted on 
wood ; all this pomp and sacred phantasmagoria 
conceal but poorly the decline of their faith. Their 
temples are falling into ruin, and no one cares to 
build them up again. A missionary came back into 
an idolatrous district to preach the Gospel, and in 
going through a village he met a man who stopped 
him, and said, " Have you heard what has happened 
to Runga Saorma, the great god of our locality ?" 



340 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

" What is the matter with him ?" asked the English- 
man. " Some thieves have got into his temple and 
torn him down from his pedestal, and have thrown 
him into the bottom of a well. Formerly, an occur- 
rence like this would have caused great excitement; 
we should have been compelled to raise among us a 
large sum of money to get him out of the well, and 
to have him reconsecrated by the hands of the priests, 
and to replace him on his altar." "And are you not 
going to do all this now?" u No ; we have all come 
to the conclusion, that as he was not able to save him- 
self, he would hardly be able to do much in the way 
of saving others." 

Such is the tone of religious feeling even hi the 
country ; but it is in the great centres of population 
that the old Hindoo worship especially appears to be 
tottering to its fall. As one among the causes that 
have brought about this decadency, we must name 
the education afforded in the schools established by 
the English Government. In these schools they 
strictly respect the liberty of conscience of the na- 
tives, but at the same time they teach them the ele- 
ments of all secular acquirements. According to the 
Hindoo system, every thing is connected with a di- 
vine principle ; and the Brahmins were in the habit 
of assuring their disciples that no fact existed either 
in geography, astronomy, or indeed any other sci- 
ence, which had not been revealed in their sacred 
books. Religions, like governments, perish through 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



341 



absolutism ; and when the English schools were 
opened, and the dogmas of the Vedas were brought 
face to face with Western science, the Brahmins 
could no longer maintain the parallel, and immedi- 
ately lost all authority over the youthful intellect. 
The study of the laws of nature vanquished the gods, 
in the very cradle of polytheism. 

But Christians must not be too precipitate in re- 
joicing at this triumph ; for the breaking up of the 
colossal edifice of Hindoo superstition seems but little 
likely to result in much profit to their own faith. 
Under various names, such as Brahmo-sijah, Brah- 
mo-somaj, and Veda-somajam, a new sect has lately 
arisen, which stands aloof from all revelations, true 
or false. The members of these Indian fraternities 
agree with each other in one point only — the belief 
in a Supreme Being. Opposed as they are both to 
Christianity and to the religion of the Hindoos, and 
finding, or thinking that they find, in the Bible, as 
well as in the Vedas, passages which are inconsistent 
with science, they determined, as they themselves 
say, to cut the cable which connects the minds of 
other men with supernatural authority. These dis- 
ciples of rationalism are also distinguished by a libe- 
ral spirit of toleration, and they mutually engage to 
respect every opinion. They sometimes have to ob- 
serve various customary ceremonies, as, for instance, 
in marriages and burials ; but they only do this to 
avoid wounding the feelings of the community in 



342 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

which they live. With the exception of these trifling 
sacrifices to existing prejudices, their course of ac- 
tion indicates the greatest freedom of thought ; they 
openly declare, that in all forms of religion which go 
beyond pure Deism, they can recognise nothing but 
the lifeless relics of worn-out superstitions. Associa- 
tions such as these, surrounded by all the eclat which 
intellect and wealth can give, cannot fail to exer- 
cise a powerful influence over the educated youth 
of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. Thus, a genera- 
tion of thinkers is being formed who astonish the 
English missionaries by the boldness and compre- 
hensiveness of their philosophical opinions. When 
they speak at public meetings, the high moral tone 
which they assume defies the censure of the very 
Christians themselves ; without making any distinc- 
tion of race or country, they quote, in support of 
their ideas, all those authors, travellers, and savans, 
who have, as it were, brought together the uttermost 
parts of the earth, and smoothed the way for the 
unity of the human race. 

Out of the hundred and fifty millions of inhabi- 
tants who people India, it is calculated that about 
one hundred and twelve thousand have been con- 
verted to Christianity. This is but a scanty sheaf 
from a harvest so abundant, and yet the missionaries 
have never been so full of hope. Do not the Shas- 
ters, one of the sacred books, announce a twelfth 
incarnation of Vishnu ? Judging from the inter- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 343 

pretations of the Brahmins themselves, we are on the 
eve of some great event, which will modify the reli- 
gion of India ; everyone foresees this change, and 
the Christians are waiting for it ; but the question is, 
will it answer to the idea which the English mission- 
aries have formed of it ? It will he sufficient here to 
point out some of the obstacles which oppose the 
progress of the Gospel in India ; and first of all, the 
system of caste. 

The religion of the Hindoos, agreeably to the 
usages of the country, aims at basing the principle 
of all social distinctions on the sacred class alone. 
The case is quite different with Christianity, which 
proclaims, at least in principle, that all men are equal 
before God. Thus it is that the missionaries recruit 
most of their partisans out of the inferior castes, and 
especially out of that of the Pariahs ; the other Hin- 
doos fear that, by changing their religion, they will 
lose the honour and consideration which appertains 
to their family. Another thing is, that in India the 
missionaries have not to deal with mere vague and 
absurd legends and a shapeless theogony, as in the 
South Seas ; the Hindoos, on the contrary, can op- 
pose them with their traditions, their literary records, 
and their poetry of lofty inspiration. It is a conflict 
of books — the Bible against the Vedas and the Koran. 
The Mahometans, who are very numerous in India, 
maintain that the Old and New Testaments were al- 
ready existing in the time of the Prophet, and that 



344 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN" ENGLAND. 

Mahomet has acknowledged a portion of them to be 
the Word of God, and that his followers have no 
reason for going farther than he did, as regards be- 
lief in the Scriptures. 

One of the greatest arguments that can be used 
to savages in favour of Christianity is the superiority 
of English civilisation. u Our ancestors," the Eng- 
lish tell them, u were barbarous themselves ; but mis- 
sionaries visited their island, and brought to them a 
Book which entirely changed the state of things." 
This mode of reasoning succeeds but little with the 
Chinese and Hindoos, who, after all, enjoy the bene- 
fits of a social system flourishing in many respects, 
though differing much from our own. u What was 
your God about," they say contemptuously to the 
English missionaries, " all the time that your ances- 
tors were worshipping the trees of the forest?" 

On the other hand, we must not forget that the 
Indian empire, being, as it were, a conquered pro- 
vince of Great Britain, the natives are led to look 
upon the Christian religion as one of the signs of 
conquest. Some years ago, at the conclusion of the 
mutiny which broke out in the Bengal army, the mis- 
sionary societies of London, who attributed this con- 
flict to the influence of the prevailing tone of thought, 
made fresh pecuniary sacrifices for the purpose of con- 
solidating: the Christian faith in India. In such a case 
as this, they naturally sought to make use of Indian 
converts, whose education and social rank would in- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 345 

spire respect among the natives, without exciting 
those prejudices which are too often associated with 
the feeling of a foreign supremacy. 

It is perhaps but little known in Europe that the 
restlessness of uncertainty, looked upon as a sign of 
an epoch of transition, is a disease which is not at all 
peculiar to our own continent and communities. This 
moral contagion exists in India, where we may find 
Werthers and Renes of the dark-skinned race. One 
of this class, impelled by vague aspirations, had 
roamed through every sect and every school in his 
search for enlightenment. That which he now longed 
for was rest for his soul ; but how far he was from 
obtaining it ! To quiet the perturbation of his mind, 
an Indian priest whispered into his ear some caba- 
listic monosyllables ; this remedy, as may well be 
supposed, failed in producing the wished-for effect. 
An ascetic then endeavoured to persuade him that 
these words were not the right ones, and that if he 
wished to allay the anguish of his heart, it was ano- 
ther formula that he must repeat. Three years passed 
away in these exercises before he knew and embraced 
Christianity, in which faith, if we are to believe the 
missionaries, he at last found inward peace. 

These conversions, though, are rare among the 
educated class. Are we on this account to consider 
that the mission-work has been altogether unfruitful? 
No indeed. The reflexion of Christian ideas has 
developed in the Asiatic character the features of a 



346 RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



more elevated morality, and has compelled the man 
who has renounced his gods to seek out a religion in 
his own conscience. By investigating the sacred an- 
nals of India it has also been discovered that idolatry 
was a mere innovation in that country, and that mono- 
theism, on the contrary, was the ancient faith.* 

English missionaries in India may be divided 
into two classes — the itinerant, and the resident. The 
former visit the towns and country districts of the 
peninsula. Mixed up with the people generally, they 
are accustomed to preach during the festivals and 
public ceremonies. They are to be seen at the gates 
of the temples, on the road traversed by the car of 
Juggernaut, crushing its human victims under its 
blood-stained wheels, — on the banks of the Jumna, 
bearing along on its stream, all night long, rafts of 
straw carrying lamps lighted in honour of the god- 
dess. 

Some of them make it their special task to appeal 
to the women of the country. The seclusion of the 
Indian females is neither so general nor so strict as 
is commonly imagined in Europe. The wives of the 
princes and of some rich Mahometans very seldom 



* The Mahars, who are considered the primitive inhabitants 
of the country, have preserved the idea of a God, one and indi- 
visible. Some of them, when they heard the missionaries preach 
the Gospel, cried out: "This is exactly the doctrine which our 
masters teach us !" One of their sacred books declares that the 
worship of images is an innovation, and that a supreme Being 
should alone be worshipped. 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 347 

leave the gyncecium, and they still have their faces 
covered with a veil ; but they receive visits. As for 
the other females, they walk about the streets and 
public places at almost all hours of the day, and spend 
quite as much time outside the house as the men do. 
Sometimes a missionary preaching in the open air 
spies out one of these brown daughters of Eve look- 
ing out of a window, where she can listen all the 
time without being seen by the crowd. The married 
missionary possesses also an additional means of get- 
ting at these shy unbelievers ; he has his wife by his 
side, and she can make her way into the houses, and 
sometimes into the palaces. There are some among 
the female helpers of the missionary who share with 
him even the ministerial office itself. 

A report was spread at Ralmaiswi, forty-two 
miles from Nagpore, that a lady (Mrs. Cooper) had 
arrived there, who spoke the Mahratta language; 
more than 200 women went from the town to visit 
her in her tent ; her husband was away at the time 
preaching in the bazaar, so she took advantage of the 
opportunity, and read and expounded the Bible to 
them. " We should not have dared to come," these 
women observed, " if the sahib had been a man ; 
but as it is a person of our own sex, we can see no 
harm in gathering from her lips that which our hus- 
bands are listening to in the bazaar." 

The missionaries with fixed residences belong 
mostly to the Church of England ; some of them 



348 KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

live quite in the interior of the country, as for in- 
stance, Mr. Joseph Higgins, who came to settle, 
some five or six years ago, in the long valley of 
Budwail, shut in on all sides with dark hills covered 
with low-growing forests and rough bushes. The 
valley is flat, with lakes glittering in the tropical sun, 
and numerous villages half hidden by the tall tama- 
rind and fig-trees which overshadow them. He lives 
there, almost the only European, amid a wild Hindoo 
population, the tribe of the Malas. His hut stands 
on the bank of a river in a gloomy district, far from 
any other habitation ; it is, however, sheltered by a 
clump of fine trees, under which the missionary takes 
his daily walk, or sits in the evening to meditate. 
Many an Indian labourer, passing the house on his 
way to the village, stops and wonders at the sight of 
the padre, his head bent down over a book, or black- 
ening paper with a pen full of ink, and thus engaged 
in occupations of which an Indian of the lower class 
can form no idea at all. At night, his window lighted 
up, and glimmering like a star amid the ocean of 
darkness overspreading the whole valley, inspires in 
those that see it a sort of mysterious dread. Yet this 
solitary hut enjoys its festivals; and where is the 
Englishman who, when merry-makings are talked 
about, does not at once turn his thoughts to Christ- 
mas ? 

On the eve of this great day, groups of men, 
women, and children, clothed in the most striking 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 349 

colours — white robes with scarlet vests and turbans 
— arrive from the various Christian villages. Most 
of the women wear flowers in their hair, and the 
children are covered with garlands of marigolds and 
chrysanthemums. At night-fall, about 500 persons 
are collected together, and a little bell gives the sig- 
nal for a religious service. Under a rustic verandah 
made of poles, supporting bushes covered with earth 
and surmounted with green boughs, they place a 
little table, in front of which the missionary sits, 
whilst the feeble light of a solitary lamp indistinctly 
marks the bronzed features of his silent audience. 
After the service, all disperse ; some sing, and others 
dance; but most of them crowd round the padre, 
who shows them the wonders of his magic lantern. 
As a good many of these evening visitors come from 
villages fifteen or twenty miles distant, the missionary 
is bound to fulfil the duties of hospitality to them : 
will his poor means suffice for this ? There need be 
no fear about it; these people are contented with 
very little ; in the first place, they sleep in the open 
air, and some handfuls of rice, distributed to each 
group, are soon transformed into a repast quite suffi- 
cient for the frugal appetite of the Hindoo. 

The next day, before day -break, the children 
sing their carols in the Telugu language, which, 
from its sweetness and elegance, has been styled the 
Italian of the East. Soon after dawn fresh villagers 
arrive, bringing the minister some little offerings, 



350 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

such as fruit, honey, and balm. Then they all pro- 
ceed to the church, a humble shed ornamented with 
garlands and festoons of flowers. In order the better 
to do honour to the festival, the missionary presents 
to the crowd two or three sheep, which he had kept 
in his stable for the occasion. The fires are lighted, 
and the women get the food ready; large leaves 
serve as plates, and the guests all sit down upon the 
grass for dinner. When this is over, all disperse, 
and the missionary is left alone with his solitude, and 
those touching reminiscences of Iris distant country 
which the Christmas plum-pudding is sure to awaken 
in the heart of an Englishman in every clime. 

The Protestant missions of Great Britain extend 
to many other countries both of the Old and New 
Worlds ; but they all present to us the same course 
of facts, with but slight shades of distinction. In 
every place the school and the church are helpful 
neighbours, for the savage who is converted to 
Christianity must learn to read his Bible. This 
proviso, however, is in many ways difficult to carry 
out, especially with adults. To overcome these ob- 
stacles, the Rev. R. Hunt, who has for a long time 
past exercised the functions of a missionary in Pata- 
gonia, has invented a new system of writing, which, 
it is said, will enable the most ignorant to read the 
Bible after a few lessons and some days' practice. 
This writing can be applied to all languages, so the 
author has given it the name of the universal or 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 351 

Prebabelic system. By way of antithesis to our con- 
trivances and conventional signs, he styles his cha- 
racters natural letters. It would be difficult to give 
an idea of this method to any one who had not its 
spelling-book before his eyes ;* but it will suffice to 
state that it has had perfect success with the red-skin 
Indians, and also that in the North London Female 
Missionary Training Institution, by the help of these 
new signs, one hour has been sufficient to enable a 
pupil to read a language which had been hitherto 
entirely unknown to him. If we may put faith in 
Mr. Hunt's representations, every Englishwoman 
who can obtain access to Eastern females will be 
able in this way to teach them in a few visits to 
beguile, by means of reading, the oppressive ennui 
of their too idle life. He seems also to hope that 
this new and simple system of writing will, some 
day or other, displace our present printing charac- 
ters, and will thus put an end to some of the ob- 
stacles which at present, even in schools, retard the 
mind of youth for so long a time. 

Although the English missions are in so flourish- 
ing a state, they have nevertheless found many an 
opponent among our neighbours themselves. The 
following questions are often asked : — " Is the work 
that is being carried on worth the money and the 



* The details of this discovery can be seen in the Missionary 
News, 15th March 1866. 



352 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

efforts it is costing the nation ? Have not the mis- 
sionaries in certain cases sacrificed in behalf of their 
religion even the interests of humanity itself, by 
bringing war and discord into the bosom of a peace- 
ful population ?" These objections, the force of which 
certainly cannot be ignored, must not cause us to lose 
sight of the real good that they have done. 

The Gospel-messengers have, by giving them a 
written form, afforded stability to many languages 
which, if they had been abandoned to oral tradition, 
would perhaps have soon disappeared; they have 
opened up regions hitherto unknown, and have pre- 
pared for future travellers a more favourable field of 
discovery, for the stranger is no longer an enemy to 
a savage converted to Christianity. Some English 
missionaries, guided by a wise discretion, have not 
been so eager at first to interfere in the religion of 
the natives as to attract them to the light by the in- 
fluences of commerce, the love of comfort, and the 
fascinations of the useful arts. Is not every one on 
earth interested in circumscribing more and more 
the circle of barbarism and superstition ? Ignorance 
alone is impious. English propagandism has, on the 
other hand, compelled the Asiatic nations to compare 
their dogmas with our own, and thus to link again 
the golden chain of sacred tradition. The Bible, 
offered to the inhabitants of India as the true Veda. 
has had perhaps to undergo various attacks ; but the 
result has been a gain to the human intellect. Reli- 



RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 353 

gion, in the form in which one loves to fancy her, 
must, like science, give heed to every record and to 
every tradition, and develop those gleams of the ideal 
which are diffused through all the forms of faith 
that brighten the face of the earth. 

In this work I have refrained from at all deeply 
discussing the dogmas and forms of belief which at 
the present day are dividing thoughtful minds. The 
sphere of my studies did not embrace this subject ; 
yet every one must recognise how much England 
owes to Protestantism. If a nation is to prosper and 
improve, it is necessary above all things that it should 
be unshackled in its relations with its God. When 
England, thanks to the Protestant Reformation, once 
for all separated herself from foreign spiritual domi- 
nation, she took into her own charge her individu- 
ality, her genius, her resources, and her conscience. 
Her national character determined itself, whilst her 
religious opinions were throwing off their bonds. 
Let Great Britain rest then in her so-called heresy ; 
it is her ancestral legacy and her strength. The Es- 
tablished Church possesses the rare merit of readily 
adapting herself to the complicated working of con- 
stitutional institutions. Her gravest reproach in 
France, let her rest assured, is her great wealth. 
Every class in the State has a right to aspire to for- 
tune, especially if a generous use be made of it ; but 
the Christian clergy have for their stronghold a book 

AA 



354 EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND. 

which professes to despise worldly goods and worldly 
honours. In any case the accumulation of property 
can add nothing to the force of either men or insti- 
tutions. The reliance, therefore, of the English clergy 
must be in their moral force, and in the first principle 
of the Reformation — I mean in liberty ; and it is to 
these things that they must look as their source of 
strength. Their power does not lie in the traditions 
that they have treasured up of the past, but in their 
participation in the elements and aspirations of the 
future. Why should they fear discussion ? The 
uniform silence of unity leads straight to despotism — 
the tomb of nations ; and their religious discussion 
and inquiry conduce to progress, which, after all, is 
but the pursuit of light. 



THE END. 



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